Qualla: Letterkenny University Hospital

Letterkenny University Hospital: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Balloholic (talk), Public domain. Hospital manager Sean Murphy could not believe how fast it happened. We had an hour, he said afterward, that changed the face of the hospital. On 26 July 2013, after a heatwave broke over Donegal in a single thunderstorm, the nearby river burst its banks and a wall of water poured through Letterkenny General Hospital - destroying the brand-new emergency department, the radiology department, the outpatient department, the kitchens, the pathology lab, the medical records, the wards. Raw sewage rose through the floors. Off-duty nurses ran back from town to help evacuate patients. A state of emergency was declared. Forty million euro in damage. The cause was banal: the drains outside the hospital had not been cleaned for seven months because of council cutbacks, and the floodwater had nowhere to go.

Image: Balloholic (talk) | Public domain

Letterkenny University Hospital: From Workhouse to University

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit louise price, CC BY-SA 2.0. The hospital has its origins in the Letterkenny Union Workhouse and Infirmary, designed by George Wilkinson and opened on Kilmacrennan Road in 1844 - one of those grim Victorian institutions that grew out of the Poor Law and stood as a final resort for the destitute. From the wor...

Image: louise price | CC BY-SA 2.0

Letterkenny University Hospital: Clinton in the Ward

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit en:User:Balloholic, Public domain. In 2006, Seamus Heaney, the poet who had won the Nobel Prize for Literature eleven years earlier, suffered a stroke. He was driven to Letterkenny with his wife. Bill Clinton, in Ireland at the time for the 2006 Ryder Cup in County Kildare, heard about Heaney's episode - as the po...

Image: en:User:Balloholic | Public domain

Letterkenny University Hospital: Other Days

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Scoyle17 at English Wikipedia, Public domain. Not every day is touched by visiting presidents. On 14 July 2009, a man brandishing an axe entered the hospital and barricaded himself into a staff room on floor E. He was making his way to intensive care to visit the husband of a deceased family member after taking a drug overdo...

Image: Scoyle17 at English Wikipedia | Public domain

Letterkenny University Hospital: And Then Again

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CeltBrowne, CC BY-SA 4.0. The aftermath of the 2013 flood was bitter. Taoiseach Enda Kenny called the damage substantial and conceded that the hospital would be out of operation for a considerable time. He did not visit and was heavily criticised for not doing so. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, who ha...

Image: CeltBrowne | CC BY-SA 4.0