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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
In 1913 part of the enormous fortune of the American millionaire John D. Rockefeller was put aside for philanthropic and charitable purposes under the direction of the Rockefeller Foundation. Throughout the twentieth century the Rockefeller Foundation disbursed money to a wide range of economic, scientific and artistic projects. Among its interests were health and medical research, and Rockefeller invested funds in public health programmes throughout the world for the eradication of particular diseases or to strengthen the effectiveness of existing public health structures.
The Rockefeller Foundation was also interested in providing aid for the reorganisation and modernisation of medical education. It was, however, loath to part with any of its monies unless it was assured of the political and social stability of a country, and also of the competence, honesty and good intentions of those to whom it entrusted funds. In order to assess this, the officers of the Rockefeller Foundation visited potential recipients. They reported back to the New York headquarters of the Foundation on the political and social background of the countries to which assistance might be given and also on the feasibility of the programmes of assistance devised to help them.
1 Up until 1989 Rockefeller had given $1.8 billion and trained 13, 000 Rockefeller Fellows ( Oakhill, Emily J. and Rose, Kenneth W. (comp.), A guide to archives and manuscripts at the Rockefeller Archive Center (New York, 1989), p. 17)Google Scholar.
2 Under the auspices of the International Health Board, renamed in 1927 the International Health Division, the Rockefeller Foundation tackled, among other diseases, hookworm in the U.S.A., tuberculosis in France, yellow fever and malaria, as well as assisting public health programmes in individual countries. Material on Ireland is found in the Rockefeller Foundation Archives (henceforth R.F.), Record Group 1.1, Projects, Series 403A: Ireland (medical sciences) (henceforth cited as R.F., 1.1, 403A).
3 In 1919 a medical sciences division was formed. A Paris office founded in 1917 to supervise the campaign against tuberculosis in France became the headquarters for the medical sciences division and its education project in Europe.
4 R.F., History, Source Material, vol. 10.
5 Alan Gregg, ‘A survey of medical education in Ireland: organization of government’, May 1925, p. 10 (R.F., 1.1, 403A, Box 1, folder 4).
6 Ibid., pp 9–10.
7 Ibid., p. 10.
8 Alan Gregg, ‘General considerations on medical education in England and Ireland’, 1925, p. 266 (R.F., 1.1, 403A, Box 1, folder 4).
9 Ibid., pp 265–6.
10 Gregg to R. M. Pearce, director of medical sciences division, 16 Sept. 1927 (R.F., 1.1, 403A: Medical Education (Development Aid), 1923–7, Boxes 5–6).
11 Report of the royal commission on the University of Dublin, pp 25–30 [Cmd 1678], H.C. 1920, xiii, 1189.
12 Sir Archibald Geike to Sir Joseph Larmor, 2 Feb. 1922 (Royal Society, Larmor papers, MS 604(2), letter 622).
13 Coolahan, John, Irish education: its history and structure (Dublin, 1981), pp 124–5 Google Scholar; McDowell, R. B. and Webb, D.A., Trinity College, Dublin: an academic history, 1592–1952 (Cambridge, 1982), p. 426 Google Scholar. McDowell and Webb say that Trinity received a number of ad hoc grants in the period 1919–23 from the British government which softened the blow somewhat.
14 Provost of Trinity College to the Rockefeller Foundation, 24 Apr. 1924 (R.F., 1.1, 403A: Medical Education (Development Aid), 1923–7, Boxes 5–6).
15 Gregg, ‘Survey of medical education in Ireland’, p. 5.
16 Gregg to Pearce, 22 May 1925 (R.F., 1.1, 403A: Medical Education (Development Aid), 1923–7, Boxes 5–6).
17 Gregg, ‘Survey of medical education in Ireland’, p. 6.
18 Farren, Sean, The politics of Irish education, 1920–65 (Belfast, 1995), pp 110–13 Google Scholar.
19 Report of the Civil Service Commission, 1978 (Dublin, 1978), p. 9.
20 These ideas were capable of causing friction with existing medical hierarchies in other parts of the world besides Ireland. See Cueto, Marcos, Missionaries of science: the Rockefeller Foundation and Latin America (Bloomington & Indianapolis, 1994)Google Scholar; Nutton, Vivien and Porter, Roy, The history of medical education in Britain (Amsterdam, 1995)Google Scholar; Weindling, Paul (ed.), International health organisations (Cambridge, 1995).Google Scholar
21 Gregg to the Johns Hopkins medical faculty, 14 Mar. 1928 (R.F., 1.1, 403A: Medical Education (Development Aid), 1928–33, Boxes 7–8).
22 Gregg, ‘General considerations on medical education in England and Ireland’, p. 261.
23 Ibid., pp 266–7.
24 Gregg to Pearce, 22 May 1925 (R.F., 1.1, 403A: Medical Education (Development Aid), 1923–7, Boxes 5–6).
25 Gregg, ‘General considerations on medical education in England and Ireland’, p. 272.
26 In the period 1921–5 the average annual number of medical graduates per year produced by all the schools in the Free State was 305 (see Dáil Éireann deb., xix, 2150–61 (5 May 1927)). Rockefeller felt that 50 per year was the most that Ireland could realistically absorb.
27 Gregg, ‘Survey of medical education in Ireland’, p. 102.
28 Gregg to Pearce, 22 May 1925 (R.F., 1.1, 403A: Medical Education (Development Aid), 1923–7, Boxes 5–6).
29 Memorandum by Gregg, 27 June 1929 (ibid., 1928–33, Boxes 7–8).
30 Lee, J.J., Ireland 1912–1985: politics and society (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 110-12Google Scholar.
31 Barrington, Ruth estimates that almost half of the 2, 200 qualified doctors in the late nineteenth century worked in the dispensary or workhouse (Health, medicine and politics in Ireland, 1900–1970 (Dublin, 1987), p. 16 Google Scholar).
32 Gregg, ‘General considerations on medical education in England and Ireland’, p. 275.
33 Ibid., p.276.
34 Two recent monographs on the process of professionalisation in medicine are Loudon, Irvine, Medical care and the general practitioner, 1750–1850 (Oxford, 1986)Google Scholar and Waddington, Ivan, The medical profession in the industrial revolution (Dublin, 1984).Google Scholar
35 The General Medical Council had forty members, of whom seven were appointed from institutions in Ireland. The medical registrar also accepted doctors from the colonial register, which Cosgrave and O’Higgins suggested might serve Irish needs. However, this would have been a step down from the advantageous position enjoyed by Irish doctors. The entry fee to the colonial register was higher, and some medical qualifications such as the Diploma of Public Health were not recognised. See Irish Times, 13–26 Aug. 1925.
36 Newspaper clippings, New York Herald, 10 Sept. 1925 (R.F., 1.1, 403A, Box 1, folder 4).
37 Medical Education. Communication: Irish Free State medical programme’, 3 Sept. 1925, p. 1 (ibid., folder 6). The O’Higgins referred to is Kevin O’Higgins, Minister for Justice.
38 Gregg to Pearce, 28 Aug, 1925 (R.F., 1.1, 403A: Medical Education (Development Aid), 1923–7, Boxes 5–7). Harold Pringle was professor of physiology at T.C.D., 1922–35 ( Gatenby, Peter, The School of Physic, Trinity College, Dublin: a retrospective view, 1922–35 (Dublin, 1994), p. 23 Google Scholar). Barry is most likely David Thomas Barry (1870-1955), professor of physiology at University College, Cork, 1907–42. Barry was in correspondence with Rockefeller in the 1920s, pushing the claims of Cork s medical faculty.
39 Coffey to Gregg, 18 Sept. 1925 (R.F., 1.1, 403A, Box 1, folder 4).
40 Pearce to Gregg, 24 Sept. 1925 (ibid.).
41 Irish Times editorial, 22 Aug. 1925, quoted in The Leader, 29 Aug. 1925, p. 78.
42 The Leader, 22 Aug. 1925, p. 80.
43 ’The surgeon’s knife’ in The Leader, 19 Sept. 1925, p. 155.
44 Ibid., editorial, p. 152. Charles Maunsell was president of the Royal College of Surgeons, 1924–6.
45 The Leader, 19 Sept. 1925, p. 152.
46 The main area of support appeared to be Galway Medical School, where a number of professors supported the change. The Galway medical students, however, voted against it (Irish Times, 27 Aug. 1925).
47 Ibid., 29 Aug. 1925, p. 80.
48 Fleetwood, John F., The history of medicine in Ireland (Dublin, 1984), pp 272–3 Google Scholar; see also Dáil Éireann deh, xix, 2150–61 (5 May 1927).
49 R. M. Taylor, ‘Notes on a trip to England and Ireland’, 1932, p. 2 (R.F., 1.1, 403 (unclassified), Box 1, folder 3).
50 Russell to Vincent, 14 Sept. 1928 (ibid.: Medical Education (Development Aid), 1928–33, Boxes 7–8).
51 Gregg to Pearce, 23 Oct. 1928 (ibid.).
52 See Lee, Ireland, pp 110–12.
53 Gregg to Dr F. W. O’Connor, assistant to Dr R. M. Pearce, medical sciences division, Rockefeller Foundation, New York, 10 Sept. 1925 (R.F., 1.1, 403A, Box 1, folder 6). Sir Edward Coey Bigger (1861-1942), of Belfast; formerly medical inspector and commissioner for the Irish Local Government Board; member of Seanad Éireann, 1925–36; father of J. W. Bigger of T.C.D; represented Ireland on the General Medical Council.
54 Gregg, ‘Survey of medical education in Ireland’, pp 104, 149.
55 Memorandum by Gregg, 13 Feb. 1930 (R.F., 1.1, 403A: Medical Education (Development Aid), 1928–33, Boxes 7–8). John Marcus O’Sullivan succeeded Eoin MacNeill as Minister for Education.
56 R. A. Lambert to Gregg, 9 Feb. 1933 (ibid.). Gregg had gone from the Paris office by 1929.
57 Newspaper cuttings (ibid.). Sir William Taylor (1871-1933) was a former president of the Royal College of Surgeons and president of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland since 1927. His hospital connexions were with the Meath, Sir Patrick Dun’s and the Coombe, all in Dublin.
58 Memorandum to Rockefeller Foundation staff conference, 5 Mar. 1931 (ibid.).
59 R.F., History, Source Material, vol 15, p. 3844.
60 This material was collected in the course of a history of tuberculosis, and the relationship of Rockefeller to this question is the subject of separate paper by the author.
61 Taylor, ‘Notes on a trip to England and Ireland’, p. 10.