Nurse Maud Geraghty

Winifred Maud Geraghty (nee Donnellan) was born on the 2nd July 1899 in Camp Street, Oughterard Co. Galway.

Maud’s Childhood and Education
Maud (who never used the name Winifred except when required officially) lived for part of each school year with her mother’s unmarried sister and brother, Katie and George Hynes, in Headford. This resulted in her attending primary and post primary school there as well as in Oughterard. She got on well in each and also advanced her study of music and the piano which she dearly loved.
On completion of her schooling, she had to decide on choosing a lifetime career. Surprisingly, while coming from a family with a strong teaching background and having taught a little herself by this time, she chose to become a nurse. She trained at Essex Hospital, Colchester from 1928-1931. Her nursing registration number was 61820, after which she returned to Ireland. She joined the midwifery staff of the famous Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, a noted maternity centre. She worked her way up to being appointed Charge Nurse of its Theatre. She loved her time at the Rotunda and particularly enjoyed the opportunities her outpatient work afforded, especially in allowing her to work with the tenement families just north of the Liffey. She often spoke of these wonderful people, especially of the mothers among them, and of their attitude to life regardless of the cards they had been dealt.

Maud relocated to the West
The West of Ireland was always calling, however and after a number of years at the Rotunda she successfully applied when the position of Theatre Charge Nurse at the Central Hospital Galway was advertised. The excellence of her work over her years there received huge praise and I was pleased to find one such accolade among her papers. It was one of which I knew she was very proud but at the same time humbled. It came from her overall boss at the hospital Dr. Morris, who was Obstetrician and Gynecologist to the Maternity Department and it was made at a meeting of the County Hospitals’ and Dispensaries Committee. Its members were considering the suitability and merits of the applicants for Mum’s job following her resignation as the department’s Charge Nurse. They felt it necessary to send for Dr. Morris and seek his guidance on the matter. He spoke at length and summed up by saying he considered that Nurse Donnellan (Mum) had set a remarkable standard for the theatre and the department during her tenure and he believed that was the standard that her successor should seek to achieve. He concluded his contribution with this lovely compliment to Mum. “When I heard Nurse Donnellan was about to resign, I was heartbroken because she was a wonderful nurse and the hospital had improved greatly while she was there” (The Connacht Tribune, Sept 25 1937).

Mum’s resignation
Mum had resigned on foot of being appointed to the position of Oughterard and District State Nurse, her final career move (1937). While naturally overjoyed to be back among her own people and in her own place she had to have been saddened by the general state of life there. War had been kindling and erupting on and off in Europe from the early 1930’s with catastrophic effects. It became a reality in 1939 and in no time, it would become World War Two. The effect this had on life in general was two-fold to say the least. Firstly, every necessary commodity became either extremely scarce or entirely unavailable. Secondly this left its mark on peoples’ general mood and behaviour. Medicines, general medical supplies and petrol were in short supply or not at all. Each was an essential for a district nurse and at best each was seriously rationed. Not very inspiring for any nurse facing this new role. Right through life however Mum was a battler who courageously faced every problem head-on with the help of God and a plan.
First of all, however, she needed to deal with a number of personal matters. The first of these was her upcoming marriage to her boyfriend, Peter Geraghty, whom she met during her time at the Central Hospital.

Finding a New Home
My arrival further increased the need for my parents to find a home of their own as well as a work address for Mum. Finally, they succeeded. They got to rent a cottage in Lemonfield. As it was one of a number of look-alike cottages, Mum worried that this could pose problems for anyone seeking ‘’the nurse’’, especially at night. She was also worried that our close neighbours would be disturbed. They went ahead with the cottage however and what a lucky decision that proved to be. No problems arose, primarily because our neighbours were fabulous. Mrs Feeney and husband Dan from next door even kept a watchful eye on me if Dad had to escort mum in answer to a call. Mrs. McEvilly, our neighbour on the other side and husband Jim were equally as nice as were all in Lemonfield. I must mention Maureen Darcy, a few years my senior, who took me to school on my first days and her sister Kitty who grew up and married Hubert Delap, long-time manager of Connemara Golf Club and Renvyle footballer.

Mum’s works as a Nurse
By now, mum had been District Nurse in Oughterard for ten years. Whenever I am asked to describe the type of person she was, the two words that come to mind immediately are ‘love’ and ‘care’. These were the virtues that governed her way of living and working. She achieved a high level of success everywhere she worked. Her genuine, lovely and caring way of dealing with her patients, together with her excellent nursing record won her widespread respect and admiration. It was lovely to see the men of the parish raise their headgear in respect when meeting her. Mum never rushed a treatment even if she were exhausted, which was so often the case. Bear in mind that she cycled her large district day and night for almost her entire working life. Her bike was her constant companion and ‘best mate’. Dad was always trying to get her to drive. In fact, he bought her a new car at one stage but then made the big mistake of personally trying to teach her to drive it. Constant failure led to some very funny verbal exchanges. One stands out in my mind. On arrival home after a session of tuition, she led him to our piano, sat him down and ordered him to play the Blue Danube. He immediately replied ‘I don’t know the first thing about playing the Blue Danube’. Mum’s reply was sharp and final, ‘Neither do I know the first thing about driving your car’.
Mum believed in being thorough in her work, with a capital T. She never left a patient until she was fully happy that she had done as much as she could do. This quite often led her to overnighting at the home of her patient. Or occasionally, even for a longer time. I can remember her missing two Christmas Day dinners in these circumstances. She also attached great importance to cleanliness and continually investigated how to improve the shortage of hot water, which was the situation everywhere. After her schoolhouse visits, we students all knew that ‘cleanliness is next to Godliness’, but no-one had the wherewithal to bring about the necessary improvement.
Mum’s empathy for the poor
She held a special place in her heart for the poor and for the travelling people. I would spend some time at their camps when driving mum and I got to know some of them quite well.

While mum kept up to date with the introduction of new medicines, she also paid a lot of attention to old Irish cures, studying them from the point of view of cause and effect. She cured many patients (even including animals) when all else had failed.

A Woman of many talents
Mum loved to get a full evening or part of one free and to herself. Her favourite pastimes were playing her piano and angling. She would always play ‘when two eyes of blue came smiling true at me’ after which we would tease her that Dad’s eyes were green or grey or any colour but blue. She loved to play the Strauss Waltzes, Gilbert and Sullivan pieces, traditional Irish airs and, of course, the popular music of the day.

If she was sure that no calls were pending, she would ask me or Dad to take her to some of the small lakes or rivers in the hinterland and she would fish until dark, despite the fact that on most such evenings, the midges would eat one alive. She had spent quite a lot of her childhood on Lough Corrib with her dad, her brother John and the extended family. To boat on the Corrib was not an option at this time of her life due to the possibility of a call from a patient. Her favourite spot, in my opinion, was the small river at the head of the Corrib system in the Maam Valley. It was not a favourite of mine because of the midges.
She loved chatting with her neighbours, especially her next-door neighbour, Ellen Ferris and the Shaughnessy sisters in Camp Street, who had spent their days nursing in the Central Hospital and in being of great assistance to the people of Oughterard when seeking attention there. Of course, her chats with Ellen were made really enjoyable when they would be joined by Johnny Keogh or Jo-Jo Carney. She would phone me the next day to fill me in on the events of the night before. She loved it all.
While she was very much a fun person, she was deeply religious. She attended mass daily when possible and had a great love for her rosary. God rest them all.

Memories from local people of Maud

Maud Geraghty, District Nurse in Oughterard in the 1950’s, 1960’s & 1970’s

I went to school in Derryglen and there was the best part of 50-60 pupils in it. The Clancy’s, Helene Conneely, Lydon’s, Gibbon’s, Geoghegan’s, Damien Nee were all from Glengowla. The O’Toole’s from Derryglen. The Sullivan’s, Walsh’s, O’Toole’s, Matty Joyce and Barbara Richardson were all from Leam. The Lyons, McDonagh’s and Michael Joyce were all from Bunnakill and my cousins the Gibbons’s from Derry.

It was a two-classroom school, Tess Maloney taught from junior infants up to 3rd class and Mrs. Prendergast (she was ready to retire) taught 4th class to 6th class and certain times Maud Geraghty would visit the school. She would have looked out for hygiene and cleanliness in the pupils. One day Tess Maloney looked out the window and she spotted Maud Geraghty coming up the steps. She asked us all if we had hankys and there were 6 pupils that the none so she got her head scarf and a ruler and divided the scarf up into six portions and gave it to the pupils with no hankies, When Maud came in again she asked if we had hankys and asked us to put them up in the air and six of them were the same colour. The same day when I when I went home my eldest brother Miko was in the same class as Tommy Lydon of Glengowla, he was telling our parents that Maud Geraghty came in the classroom and while she was talking to Mrs. Prendergast ,Tommy Lydon discovered he had no hanky and what did he do, he tore a piece of the tail of his shirt he was wearing and produced it as a hanky.

My father suffered an illness and Nancy McAleer succeeded Maud Geraghty and used to visit my father. He would talk about the hard times, his wife was expecting Noel and at night my mother went into labour at 3 in the morning, My father got his bike and went over a mile over the road to Eileen Clancy and told her the situation and asked her to back and look after things and he went down to Oughterard to get Maud Geraghty to deliver the child and it ended up that Eileen Clancy was Noel’s godmother.

Recently I was loading firewood on Jim Healy’s tractor in Lemonfield and Jim told me a story that was the same age as Cepta Geoghegan in Glengowla. They were born the same day and Maud Geraghty brought her into the world and 2 to 3 hours later went up to Claremount to deliver Jim. Miko was born in the hospital in Galway, John was born in the mill in Glengowla, Paul was born in Clareville house that my parents had rented from P Joe Melia’s mother Nora and five of us were born on the home farm in Glengowla, Tess Maloney was a pure saint and an excellent teacher but I won’t comment on Mrs. Armstrong (who took over from Mrs. Prendergast).

Anthony Gibbons , Portacarron
15th June 2024

Better that any doctor: I remember her coming to our house in Glengowla wearing a dark dress, white apron and a white cap. My mother Mary Lydon was heavily pregnant and Nurse Geraghty was insistent that she rest as my mother was a busy woman looking after the family and taking care of Ned Thornton who lived beside us. She rode her bicycle everywhere and if she heard that Nurse Geraghty was to visit, she would hide it. Peter, her husband, brought her to our house – a kind gentle man.
Nurse Geraghty didn’t like cycling the hills of Glengowla and particularly the steep hill up to Mamie Sullivan’s house.
Mothers long ago remained in bed for a few days after the birth of a baby and Dad’s sister Brigid from Maam came to look after us.
Maureen Lydon June 2024

Observations about Maud Geraghty from the Senior ladies group that meet on Thursday

Maud was held in high esteem, had a high level of autonomy in her work, she was competent and confident when confronted to care for uncomplicated cases but also calmly managed single handedly situations that today would be recognized as emergencies.

From once she arrived at your home you felt safe. She seemed to be able to cope with any problem that arose during delivery.

She supported women during pregnancy, during labour and birth and even after the birth, she would visit you twice daily for the first few days after the birth, this was a great comfort.

Midwives weren’t allowed to give stitches, that was a doctor’s role. Only in the rarest of cases were women admitted to hospital.

Maud often stayed up all night with a patient.

Maud said when asked what was her greatest achievement in life? I never lost a baby.

In the olden days women got on with labour in their own homes, in their own time but now women are too often induced unnecessarily.

Midwives deliver breech babies, premature babies, twins, those with congenital abnormalities, this was all before modern scanning in fact for both the mothers and the midwife, it was a journey into the unknown.

In 1974 Midwives changed for good. Women went to the hospital and often booked under obstetricians. Local authorities no longer employed District midwives, their work was sublimed into the HSE and was run by maternity units in hospitals.