Long Felt Want

Galway Observer, May 23, 1931

The decision to erect a hospital in Clifden has long been expected, and from information to hand has not come a moment too soon. When the amalgamation scheme was formulated, the old workhouse hospital in Clifden was disestablished in the same way as the other hospitals in the county. The peculiar position of Clifden was not taken into consideration, The fact that the capital of Connemara is over fifty miles from the Central Hospital, Galway, and that at certain periods of the year the roads are negotiated with some difficulty, seems to have been lost sight of by the advocates of amalgamation. Indeed under the scheme, Clifden was left in a state of horrible isolation. The Commissioner acting as the Board of Health appreciates this view point, and he told the "Observer" that he was of opinion that the establishment of a hospital was a sheer necessity. As soon as a suitable plot was secured for a hospital, he would instruct the engineer to draw up plans and specifications. There would be some twenty—four beds in the institution, and he had hopes that the building would be erected for a sum in the neighborhood of £5,000 and £6,000.