This afternoon I was at Leinster House finalising arrangements for the Somme Association’s Commemorations of the Battle of the Somme at the end of the month. In the Member’s Dining Room room I met my friend Eamon O’Cuiv who was entertaining the Young Ambassadors Group accompanied by Tim Campbell of the St Patrick’s Centre in Downpatrick.Two of these young people I had already met by coincidence at the Somme Centre.
I also met Maurice Hayes MRIA,who was to chair a meeting organised by the Institute for British-Irish Studies (IBIS),The International Centre for Local and Regional Development and The Centre for Cross Border Studies to which I had been invited. This was entitled “Should Ambulances Stop at The Border”, the challenge of co-operation in healthcare provision.
With access to world-class healthcare coming under increasing strain both north and south of the border, is there a case for an all-island strategy on health?.The question was posed as to whether a coherent andcohesive all-island heath initiative was a feasible and practical viability.
The seminar was held in The Royal Irish Academy, the academy for the sciences and humanities for the whole of Ireland which promotes excellence in scholarship, recognises achievements in learning, directs research programmes and undertakes its own research projects, particularly in areas relating to Ireland and its heritage.I always like to see their portrait of Sir Samuel Feguson, who wrote my favourite epic poem Congal, which I published,with a historical introduction, as The Battle of Moira in 1980 as a Nosmada book.
Maurice Hayes was for many years Northern Ireland Ombudsman, and has played a prominent part in public life here and in the Republic.He was Permanent Secretaty of the Department of Public Health(N. Ireland) and Chairman of the Community Relations Council.