The Red Cross both nationally and internationally is proud of its achievements to date. Within Ireland the Red Cross was to the forefront in the provision of relief for most of the 20th Century, attracting to it some notable talent.
The rescue and relief operations of the Red Cross in Dublin in 1916 were seen at first hand by the young novelist Nevil Shute, who went on to win fame for his classic; A town called Alice. Then aged just 17, the young Nevil Norway (he later took the name Shute) was the son of the Postmaster General of the time whose office was occupied by the 1916 leaders. Recounting his experiences with the Red Cross, his mother said:
"This has been a wonderful week for N. Never before has a boy of just seventeen had such an experience. Yesterday morning he was at the Automobile Club filling cans of petrol from casks for the Red Cross ambulance .... in the afternoon he went round with the Lord Mayor in an ambulance collecting food for forty starving refugees from the burned-out district housed in the Mansion House, and after tea went out for wounded (sic) and brought in an old man of seventy-eight shot through the body."(1)
Another novelist and Nobel prize-winner, Samuel Beckett (left), also gave his services to the Red Cross when he worked for the Irish Red Cross Society at the hospital set-up by the IRCS in St Ló, France after the Normandy town was bombed in July 1945.
"...I think that to the end of its hospital days it will be called the Irish hospital, and after that the huts, when they have been turned into dwellings, the Irish huts," (2) said Beckett of the IRCS legacy in St Ló when he penned his own account in his 1946 The Capital of the Ruins as a script for Radio Éireann.
Later that year under Operation Shamrock the transfer of hundreds of German children to Ireland by the Irish Red Cross began with the children being temporarily housed by Irish families for up to three years while their homes in Germany were being rebuilt. After six years of war, Ernest Bekenheier, one of the first 190 children to arrive in Ireland by October 1946 vividly remembered the warmth of the welcome they received in Dublin:
"As we got off the boat at Dún Laoghaire the pier was lined with tables, covered with white sheets, lots of Red Cross nurses standing behind serving out cocoa and bread with lots of butter on". (3)
"Ireland gave the largest single donation for post-war relief. This fact is recalled by Mr Leopold Boissier, president (sic) of the International Committee of the Red Cross in a special jubilee message to the Society. He said that in 1944 and 1945 the Irish people and their Government , inspired by the example set by the Irish Red Cross, gave a particularly striking example of the proverbial generosity and humanity of the Irish. A sum of £12 million was raised on behalf of the victims of the second world war in Europe." Recounts the Herald and Western Advertiser as the IRCS celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1964.
Building on this experience, the Irish Red Cross Society in 1961, under the chaimanship of Leslie Bean T de Barra, organised the Freedom from Hunger Campaign which sought to extend the activities of the Irish Red Cross in the Developing World. Like many activities first begun by the Irish Red Cross Society, the Freedom from Hunger Campaign proved so successful that it was developed into a permanent organisation; Gorta.
And at home the Irish Red Cross Society was also building-up both its safety and community services throughout Ireland. In 1964 it announced the introduction of a Meals on Wheels service. "The loneliness and sheer discomfort of many old people living alone is a serious matter; and the Red Cross deserves all credit for its willingness to go into action," commented the Irish Independent in an editorial at the time. (4)
By then the Irish Red Cross Society had developed its skills in First-Aid. With an eye to the future safety of urban and factory-workers it announced in 1964 that it would start the first Occupational First Aid courses in the country, leading The Irish Press of the time to announce - with commendable circumspection - this new programme with a telling caveat: "The programmes envisage the setting up of occupational first aid (in areas where there are factories).... (4)
Health and Safety Education was also growing and the Irish Red Cross Society won particular praise for organising the first Water Safety Campaign in Ireland from 1945 - 1971 before passing responsibility for the service over to the new state agency. The Irish Red Cross Society was also responsible for the introduction of a blood donations service to Ireland, maintaining a panel of 7,000 blood donors on its Blood Transfusion Service before passing responsibility for the service over to another new state agency the National Blood Transfusion Board.
One of the biggest commitments by the Irish Red Cross Society in the post-war years was the maintenance of cottage hospitals to deal with the public health crisis caused by the spread of Tuberculosis. In south Dublin a 75-bed preventorium was opened in Ballyroan and in Cork children were housed and treated in a 50-bed preventorium at St Raphael's, Montenotte which now houses the Cope Foundation.
"The experience of many nations has taught that the care and resettlement of refugees can be very difficult and even thankless and the Society deserves unstinted congratulation on the wonderful way in which it has performed this duty on behalf of the Irish people." (5)
Taoiseach, Seán Lemass had every reason to be impressed with the introduction of refugee care services to Ireland by the Irish Red Cross Society when he congratulated it thus in 1964.
Building on its post-war experience, the Irish Red Cross Society provided refuge for 384 people from the Baltic countries at Rockgrove Army Barracks, Little Island, Cork from 1949 - 1951. Five years later, the Irish Red Cross Society were again called upon to look after 528 Hungarian refugees in Knockalisheen, Co. Clare from 1956 onwards. White Russian refugees fleeing their recently acquired homes in China had earlier been housed in Dublin by agreement with the UNHCR. (6)
And when people were displaced by strife within Ireland at the outbreak of "the troubles" in Northern Ireland, it was the Irish Red Cross Society which dealt with the thousands who sought refuge in army camps south of the border from 1969 - 1971. Later, at the end of that decade the Irish Red Cross Society again swung into action to care for over 500 Vietnamese "boat people" who made their homes in Dublin in 1979. (6)
Since then the Irish Red Cross Society has been to the forefront in caring for Bahi refugees in 1985, and again in 1993 for Bosnian refugees who stayed in Cherry Orchard Hospital, Dublin. (6)
Notes
- The Sinn Fein Rebellion as They Saw it. Edited and introduced by Keith Jeffrey. Irish Academic Press. 19992)
- As No Other Dare Fail. John Calder. 1986
- Germany and Ireland 1945 - 1955. TwoNations Friendship. Cathy Molohan. Irish Academic Press. 1999
- The Irish Independent. 8 September 1964
- The Cork Examiner. 8 Septemeber 1964
- Red Cross Origin and Brief History. Maureen O'Sullivan. National Honorary Secretary. The Irish Red Cross Society. Private Papers.