Could it be that the Rotunda board noticed this year marks the 75th anniversary of the resignation of the then minister for health, Dr Noël Browne? Like those hobbyists who re-stage old battles, the board tried, before it sounded the retreat last evening, to mark the anniversary by dressing up as 1950s bishops and leading the charge against socialised medicine. It was Mother and Child II: just when you thought it was safe to dream of equal treatment.

Browne was forced from office in 1951 because he had the temerity to try to introduce free medical care, on an equal basis, for all mothers and children. He was defeated by an omnipotent alliance of medical consultants and the Catholic hierarchy, led by the archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid.

The victory of the combined episcopal-medical forces over Browne’s Mother and Child Scheme was a crucial moment in the shaping of contemporary Ireland. Britain had introduced its National Health Service – one of the greatest achievements in the history of humanity. The unionist government in Northern Ireland had to follow suit. Would the Republic do likewise?

Not while there was a crosier left to knock social democracy on the head or a stethoscope to strangle it with. The reactionary establishment got its way. A unique two-tier system of hospital care was embedded in Ireland. The church could keep control of the system (and continue to deny women basic reproductive rights) and the consultants could earn small fortunes by charging women for private care.

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