Heart of the community: Croom's century of care

FOR 100 years, the halls of Croom Hospital have borne witness to the full arc of human life - from birth to healing, and farewell.

It’s a place where generations of families have found love in moments of joy and comfort in times of struggle.

Among its storied past is the now-closed maternity ward, which once echoed with the cries of newborns and the hopes of families beginning their next chapter.

To mark the hospital’s centennial, local historian John Liston reflects on the hospital’s history and its importance to the community.

“I was born there in 1959 and I’d say I was one of the last to be born there - after that, people were moved to the maternity hospital on the Ennis Road,” said Mr Liston.

“It is, and was, a major employer in Croom and the area. It is vital to Croom.”

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In 2023, the hospital got a multi-million euro makeover, with what was described as “cutting-edge advancements” .

The upgrades were unveiled in June 2023, which included the state-of-the-art Maigue Unit, featuring 24 single-room en-suite patient accommodations in St Anne’s Ward, as well as a €15m four-theatre operating suite with a new Sterile Services Department, reception, recovery areas, and ancillary support spaces.

“It is great to now see the new development there at Croom Hospital, it has sort of copper-fastened its future there,” Mr Liston said.

“There was a fear, as many of these fine hospitals were closed down and subsumed into the larger hospitals but, thankfully, Croom has been retained, improved and added to, and people are delighted with that.”

Croom Union was set up in March 1850, and included parts of the Limerick, Rathkeale, Newcastle West and Kilmallock Unions from the earlier division.

According to local tradition, the first workhouse in Croom was on the land that the present building sits, which was erected in 1852.

As there was abject poverty everywhere, orphaned children, people who were sick, and the mentally deficient, as well as the poor and destitute were housed at the workhouse.

When the first Irish government was formed a reform took place and in October 1921, the old workhouse in Croom was marked out for a County Hospital. The hospital was opened in 1924.

The first matron was a Sister of Mercy and there was a special wing used as a maternity hospital.

The old Fever Hospital, located there also, was distinct from the County Hospital. It remained the County Hospital until 1956.

In the early autumn of 1988 the Convent of Mercy attached to the hospital was closed.

Patricia Ryan of Croom Development Association said: “Croom Hospital has always been so important to Croom, from all the people looked after in the hospital in the last hundred years to the babies born, and, in more modern times, hips replaced!

“In the last number of years, Croom has benefited from families moving from overseas to work in Croom Hospital. This has added to our population, with families and individuals relocating from India, Zambia and Zimbabwe to Croom and getting involved in life here.”

Saying that the hospital is rooted in the memories of many people in Limerick and that it was a “temporary home” for people at their most vulnerable, Mr Liston also wished to remind people that it was once a staple for rural communities.

“There was a school in the hospital for when people stayed there for a long time,” he said.

“We associate hospital stays as being “in and out” nowadays, but people with hips and broken legs that time could be in there for months - we forget that.

“People were immobile for ages years ago if an accident happened and when you went to Croom, you’d be there for a long while, while your bones knitted again.”

After the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) in Dooradoyle was established, Croom became the Orthopaedic Hospital for North Munster.

Reflecting on the hospital’s history, it is clear that it has become the heartbeat of the community, deeply intertwined with the essential services it has, and still does, provide for people.