Crib restored to Mayo General
MICHAEL COMMINS
THE manager of Mayo General Hospital, Tony Canavan, has yielded to public pressure and restored the Christmas Nativity Crib to the foyer of the hospital in Castlebar.
News of the major u-turn was widely welcomed across the county where it was seen as a triumph for ‘common sense’.
The decision in recent years to remove the crib from the hospital foyer was greeted with amazement by staff, patients and the general public and had led to a huge outcry of disapproval.
Mr Canavan has conceded that the decision to erect a crib in the oratory and not to erect one in the hospital foyer was an internal hospital decision in Castlebar and was not a directive from the HSE.
The Mayo News strongly backed the campaign to restore the crib to the foyer and was to the fore in challenging the thinking behind the initial decision.
In a text poll conducted by the Tommy Marren Show on Mid West Radio last week, which attracted just under 1,000 votes, a staggering 98.5 per cent voted for the crib to be restored to its traditional place in the foyer of the hospital in Castlebar.
Mr Canavan, who was a guest on the Wednesday morning show, accepted that the people had spoken loud and clear on the issue and that, from the weekend, the crib would be erected in the foyer, thus bringing to a close a dispute which had galvanised the people of the area behind a deeply cherished and heartfelt native tradition.
Fine Gael TD, Michael Ring, who had lashed out at the earlier decision not to erect the crib in the hospital foyer, said he warmly welcomed the decision by Mr Canavan.
“I am delighted with this announcement. It is what the people wanted. Many people had contacted me to express their disappointment and annoyance at the lack of a Nativity Crib in the foyer of the hospital, which is the area accessed most by members of the general public,” said Deputy Ring.