Irish Examiner view: No proper answers from Temple Street for family who lost their daughter
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Mr Carter’s account of Dollceanna’s death and the grief being endured by her family was harrowing, and it was unsurprising to read that he wants answers. The ongoing revelations about Temple Street have led to plenty of questions about the hospital’s culture and performance, though those questions have in turn produced a pretty typical response from the HSE.
That organisation’s chief executive, Bernard Gloster, admitted on Thursday that an external review of events at Temple Street could take 12 months.
This is unsatisfactory. Mr Gloster and his colleagues need to act with a good deal more urgency in this case: A family has been broken by the death of a child, many more have had children suffer. They all deserve to have their questions answered with alacrity.
The wider implications of what has happened at Temple Street are only now beginning to filter out. The HSE has expanded its review of events in the Dublin hospital to take in all children’s orthopaedic surgery across the country, so we may see further revelations about other locations in the coming weeks.
One specific issue which needs to be clarified is the use of unauthorised devices in Temple Street, which is likely to be central to any review or investigation. In that context it is worth pointing to an admission from Health Minister Stephen Donnelly this week that while he knew about general issues at the hospital for “many months”, he could not address some more specific queries.
For instance, he admitted that he and Mr Gloster could not explain how those unauthorised devices got into the hospital and were used on children who underwent spina bifida surgery. A minister out of the loop and a review which may take a whole year. A shameful week and no answers for a family who have lost a daughter.
As Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe indicated on Thursday, they may have shaken the authorities out of any possible complacency, forewarning them against any Irish version of the scenes in Washington on January 6, 2021, when Trump-supporting protesters invaded the US Capitol.
There were 13 arrests at Wednesday’s demonstration, which is a fair indication of the seriousness of the situation. It was no surprise to see that Justice Minister Helen McEntee is seeking answers from the Garda commissioner, nor to learn that An Garda Síochána is to review security measures around Leinster House.
However, it must also be pointed out that politicians, journalists, and staff in Leinster House are not the only people who have been threatened and intimidated at their place of work in recent months. Over the summer, staff at various libraries around Ireland were also targeted by right-wing provocateurs, and it was notable that the Garda approach was laissez-faire in those cases.
There is no excuse for the appalling intimidation seen outside Leinster House on Wednesday, but the Houses of the Oireachtas are guarded by gardaí and uniformed ushers, while entry to the building is strictly controlled. No such measures are available in the libraries dotted around Ireland.
Improving the safety of our elected representatives is a welcome move and let us remember that all our citizens deserve protection from intimidation at work.
It is a celebration of culture in all its forms all over the country, with a breathtakingly wide variety of events on offer — and all of them available for free.
On a cost basis, there could hardly be better value for money, then.
This is the 18th year of the event and counter-intuitively, one immediate reaction is regret: Regret that it is such a recent innovation. If this event reached back 20, 30, or 40 years, how much richer would our cultural life have been over those decades?
The appetite for these events is well established. Last year, almost three-quarters of a million people attended the various events: 742,000 people engaged with 1,700 Culture Night events in 2022. If that doesn’t count as a resounding success, what would?
The benefits of such an evening work both ways. The value of the creative industry to the public at large is beyond debate, but access and awareness are always a challenge, particularly for arts and practices which are non-mainstream.
The range of events on offer tonight is therefore doubly important in that it may offer some a “taster” and encourage them to enjoy different experiences.
Whether that’s a behind-the-scenes tour of Cork’s Everyman Palace, Tim Schmelzer’s light show at the Gallarus Oratory Visitor Centre in Dingle, or a guided tour through James Joyce’s Nighttown, near Butt Bridge and Custom House Quay in Dublin, there’s bound to be an event to take every reader’s fancy.
No matter where readers are this evening, getting out and experiencing some culture is a Friday night well spent.