Grattan Street Stories: Memory of Place

Grattan Street Stories: Memory of Place

This collection focuses on a building on Grattan Street which has served as a Quaker Meeting House, a public Dispensary and as the Grattan Street Health Centre. The project was a collaboration between the CFP and the Cork North Community Work Department, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, Health Services Executive HSE. 

The interviewees fall into two main groups: those who worked in the building and those who lived in the surrounding area and availed of the services provided in the building.

This project follows on from the collaboration with the HSE in the “HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)”. There is a further connection between the two projects as many of the staff and services once provided in the Grattan Street Health Centre have now relocated to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. This topic of the relocation of services is also covered in some staff interviews.

To date (October 2021) 13 interviews have been completed for the project.

Interviewees discuss the Grattan Street building itself in terms of its historic significance, its benefits and drawbacks as a workplace. Broader themes related to or inspired by the building are also touched on including: personal relationship with the building, staff camaraderie, the problems with parking, memorable incidents at work, patient experiences and descriptions of the people and services for which the building catered.

Healthcare professional interviewees detail their training, career progression and comparisons between Grattan Street and other workplaces. Their testimonies also provide a link with the community of patients they served giving further insight into attitudes to healthcare, diseases, vaccines, description of social conditions and the changes in medicine and technology in their working lives.

Non-healthcare professional interviewees describe childhood experiences in or around Grattan Street (The Marsh or The Middle Parish), the social, cultural and economic conditions of the area, tenements, businesses, attitudes to and experiences of healthcare, vaccines, diseases, medicines and medical professionals as well as observed changes in these areas over time.

Interviewees also reflect on the possible future uses of the Grattan Street building.

Related Reference Sources

• Barrington, R. (1987) Health, medicine and politics in Ireland, 1900–1970. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.
• Butler D.M. (2004) The Quaker meeting houses of Ireland. Dublin : Irish Friends Historical Committee.
• Byrne, J. (2004) Byrne's dictionary of Irish local history. Cork: Mercier Press.
• Cooke, R. T. (1999) My Home by the Lee. Irish Millennium Publications: Cork.
• Dempsey, P. J. & White, L. W.  ‘Childers, Erskine Hamilton’. Dictionary of Irish Biography [Accessed 18 October 2021]
• Harrison, R.S. (1991) Cork City Quakers 1655-1939: A Brief History. Cork.
• Houston, M. (2004). ‘Life before the GP’. The Irish Times. Available at : <https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599 > [Accessed 18 October 2021]
• Keohane, F. (2020) The Buildings of Ireland Cork City and County. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Cork, Ireland 1940s-2020s; Waterford, Ireland; Dublin, Ireland; Limerick, Ireland;

Exhibition

Artist Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave (also an interviewee for the project) created a visual artwork based around the Grattan Street Medical Centre building itself, as a workplace and health centre. The artwork incorporated direct quotations from the oral history interviews conducted for the project, and also included brief historical paragraphs about the building researched, written and edited by the CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer Kieran Murphy. This exhibition was launched on 6^th February 2020 in “St Peter’s” on the North Main Street where a “Listening Event” was also held to mark the occasion.

Presentation and Listening Event

To coincide with the launch of the Grattan Street Stories Exhibtion on 6^th February 2020 a listening event and presentation of the history of the Grattan Street Medical Centre building and description of the project was given by CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer Kieran Murphy.

Presentation

In 2019 at the OHNI conference the CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer Kieran Murphy discussed social media and oral history which included audio excerpts from the Grattan Street Stories Project along with photographs of the building.

Audio Visual Presentation

An audio-visual slideshow was produced featuring oral testimony from the Grattan Street Stories Project and combined with suitable images of Grattan Street and from Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave’s exhibition. This was created by CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer Kieran Murphy.

Health and Vaccines Oral History Research

Many of the interviews conducted for the Grattan Street project formed an integral part of the testimonies and research for the innovative
'Catching Stories' of infectious disease in Ireland project funded by the Irish Research Council.