Tullamore Lions Club donate €15,000 to hospital healing garden

TULLAMORE Lions Club presented a cheque for €15,000 to the Friends of Tullamore Hospital for a five year period 2025-2029 to support the ongoing maintenance of the Healing Garden to ensure that it continues to be a place of solace and healing for all those who visit.

Gerard Lane, Friends of the Hospital, said they were very grateful to the Lions Club for their most generous donation which he said would support the continued maintenance and growth of the garden for the benefit of the patients and their families.

In 2007 the Friends of the Hospital were given approval to create an enclosed healing garden on the hospital campus adjacent to the hospital chapel. The area of the garden is 186 square metres and it opened in 2009.

People who are stressed through illness or other worries often turn to the natural world for relief and comfort finding a haven in the rhythms of nature.

The garden offers a place of retreat for patients, their families, visitors and members of staff to use as a place of peace and tranquillity in the busy environment of the hospital.

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All the pathways in the garden have been designed with a view to ease of access and movement for those in wheelchairs and with IV equipment.

“There are 9 marble structures in the garden the theme of these are, “The Slow Release of the Dove” which was deemed suitable for our garden, these sculptures symbolise healing where doves are held by healing hands which open slowly as healing takes place and the dove is eventually released to fly again.,” explained Bernie Mann, Friends of the Hospital.

“This marble was sourced from the same Quarry that the famous Michaelangelo statue was sculpted from and was kindly donated to the Friends of the Hospital,” she added.

During the Covid 19 pandemic the garden became overgrown. With thanks to hospital management it was agreed that the Friends would do a makeover to bring some new life, plants, colour and lighting to the garden. This work was necessary as the garden had not been upgraded since it opened in 2009

The mature plants and those doing well were pruned and retained. This work also involved power hosing the paving, painting the walls and raised beds and replacing the wooden columns that the doves are placed on with a more durable composite material as the wood had become unsafe due to weather damage.

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