New memorial unveiled at St Loman’s Hospital

A beautiful new memorial dedicated to the thousands of patients who received treatment or staff who worked in St Loman’s Hospital over the past 160-plus years was officially unveiled yesterday afternoon, Monday February 7.

The stunning six-and-a-half-foot native Irish hardwood piece by renowned Mullingar sculptor Richie Clarke was funded with profits from the sale of the book, ‘A History of St Loman’s In Changing Times’.

Co-authored by six former members of staff – Joe Maleady, Odran and Frank Hynes, Breffni O’Reilly Irwin, Anne Masterson and Margaret O’Neill – the book chronicles the long history of the hospital, which welcomed its first patient in 1855. Published in November 2014, the book proved a huge success.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Joe Maleady, who thanked all of the local retailers who stocked the book, said that Richie’s sculpture is a fitting tribute to the men and women, patients and staff, who have been associated with the hospital over the decades.

Among the images depicted on the sculpture, which is located outside the building housing St Edna’s Unit and the Admissions Unit, are the hospital’s big chimney, one of the most distinctive landmarks on the Mullingar skyline; the hospital’s front hall and its church. The more than 1,200 people interred in the hospital’s cemetery are also remembered on the piece of artwork.

Joe added that it was particularly fitting that Richie was commissioned for the project as both his late father and mother, Dick and Ettie, worked in St Loman’s. Fittingly, the official unveiling took place on Monday February 7, the feast day of St Loman, after whom the hospital was named.

“We are so glad that we went down this route [with the sculpture]. Richie Clarke is a genius. His father was gifted as well, he could turn his hand to anything,” said Joe.

“We hope that people will stop at the memorial, read what’s on it and maybe say a little prayer,” he said.