Summary

Hospitals Word on the Week 6th June 2026.
Most of my friends have spent time in hospital and yesterday it became my turn to sample the wonderful caring experience. It is something we take for granted – until we have a problem that needs fixing, then our attitude changes rapidly to one of thankfulness for their existence.
Some of the beneficiaries have been, Jon Blackwell with typically well-planned surgical interventions to Mick Toolan’s near death experience from a malaria bug he picked up on his last Cameroonian trip. Both, I expect, would express their gratitude for hospitals.
My ten hours spent yesterday in Naas hospital was of a much more insignificant order. I had been doing topiary in the garden and was returning to the tarmac with the hedge cutter. This involved treading on a plant which is excellent for groundcover but treacherous to walk on! And so it proved.
My feet did not leave the border, caught up in the ground cover while my body hit the tarmac something like Humpty Dumpy in the nursery rhyme, who some of you will remember, fell and had to be put together again. And so it was with me. Naas Hospital was never more welcome!
The hospital movement in Ireland goes back to the Knights Hospitallers. They were first established at Wexford around 1172 and the Priory at Kilmainham was established in Dublin around 1174 by Strongbow, Richard de Clare. A ruin of one of their preceptories is to be found at Kilteel, a couple of miles from where I am writing!
In Ireland, as elsewhere, the brethren’s main duty was to provide hospitality and healing to pilgrims and travellers. It ended with the Prior of Kilmainham surrendering in1540 to Henry 8th after existing for 365 years.
The Christian roots of the Hospital movement have long been recognised. Many have argued that there is healing in the atonement using these verses from Isaiah 53:4/5. ‘Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.’
There is no doubt that Jesus, to whom these verses refer, is the great healer. But the healing envisioned by the Gospel is greater. It is the new heart mentioned in (Ezekiel 36 verse 26) and referred to by John in chapter 3 verses 3/5 of his Gospel. It refers to the ultimate healing for penitent sinners.