National Library of Ireland on The Commons

Irish Time 13 November 1952

"ACADEMY APPOINTMENT FOR ST. ULTAN'S DOCTOR

DR.JOHN ST. PATRICK COWELL, medical director of the National B.C.G. Committee, who is attached to St. Ultan's Hospital, Dublin has been appointed as executive secretary of the Royal Irish Academy. It is not yet known when he will take up his new post. He has been medical director of the National B.C.G. Committee since 1949.

Dr. Cowell, who is 50, was born in Manchester and was educated at Summerhill College, Sligo, and at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. From 1942 until the following year, he was house surgeon and house physician at the Meath Hospital, Dublin, and in 1943 went to England, where he served as assistant tuberculosis officer with Northampton Borough Council. In 1944, he was assistant medical officer at Grove Park Hospital, London. In the following year went to Gloucestershire, where he served as County Tuberculosis Officer until 1946. In that year, he
returned to Dublin and studied for a diploma in Public Health at University College, Dublin, which he received in 1947. In 1947, he joined Dublin County Council as Tuberculosis Medical
Officer. and remained in that position until 1949, when he took up his present appointment. He has written a number of articles in medical journals dealing with BCG vaccine.
He is a member of the Irish Tuberculosis Society and of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland."

I have zero idea about what is going on, but there are helpful notes on the previous page (image 14) ...

Phot. 8
The bacilli mass has now been transferred into a bottle with specially treated stainless steel balls, made by Swedish Ball-bearing Works.

Phot. 9
Homogenisation is achieved in two steps. The bottle is first shaken by hand.

Availability in Ireland: As of April 2015, the BCG vaccine is no longer part of the National Primary Childhood Vaccine Schedule in Ireland and the Health Service Executive (HSE) does not have a general BCG vaccination programme or stock available. In Ireland, the vaccine is only recommended for babies at higher risk of getting TB and must be sourced privately.

Sligo Champion 25 Aug 1989

"LAUNCH OF NEW BOOK ON SLIGO
JOHN COWELL, Author of Sligo - Land of Yeat's Desire

A NEW book on Sligo, entitled "Sligo, Land of Yeats' Desire" will be officially launched tonight by County Manager, Mr. Paul Byrne, at a special ceremony in Sligo Town Hall. Written by John Cowell, who grew up in Sligo and is a former pupil of Summerhill College, the book charts Sligo's history and deals extensively with the county's literature, folklore and landscape.
[. . .]

Although born in England, John Cowell comes from a County Sligo family. His father, a doctor, returned from London with his English wife and practiced at Skreen, County Sligo until his death. John Cowell attended the local national school and later went to Summerhill College. Following his father's profession, he specialised in chest diseases. When he became Medical Director of the national BCG campaign against tuberculosis, he chose County Sligo for the pilot scheme.
[...]

And let's not forget Kathleen Lynn and Dorothy Stopford-Price, without whom this photo, and that research would not have been possible...

Despite her high political profile, Lynn is remembered, primarily, for her work in St Ultan's Hospital for Infants on Charlemont St., which she established in 1919 with her confidante, Madeleine ffrench-Mullen. Its philosophy was to provide much-needed facilities, both medical and educational, for impoverished infants and their mothers.
...
At St Ultan's, Lynn fostered international research on tuberculosis eradication. In 1937, through the efforts of her colleague Dorothy Stopford-Price (qv), the hospital introduced BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) inoculation, which prevented TB. She also encouraged links with US and continental medical practitioners. (Dictionary of Irish Biography)

Plus, now I know what BCG stands for!

Fake news

there is a glitch with Flickr today - feeds are hosting "recommended photos" rather than "favoured users"

Foxglove Yes, spotted weirdinesses alright.

I see a crop of this pic online with the rightmost two prisoners captioned John Charles Keegan (right) with Eamon De Valera from a photo taken in Arbour Hill prison 1924

Niall McAuley Somewhere reputable? The Long Fellow, certainly. Interested to hear more about John Charles Keegan...

Still 'hitched' in 2014, via MikeofDorset

Edit - photo used in the Wiki article - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballymore_Castle

The NIAH says Detached three-bay two-storey country house, built c.1810, facing north, having bowed entrance bay, two-bay side elevations, slightly recessed single-bay single-storey addition to east end, and multiple-bay two- and three-storey additions to rear elevation, built onto front of four-storey tower house of c.1585, and makes a passing reference to the "Seymour mausoleum" nearby.

On the record for the Mausoleum, it says The family mausoleum of the Seymours, who acquired Ballymore Castle and its lands around 1700 and remained there until the early twentieth century, so the Seymours probably owned the castle at the time of this pic.

There seems to be several Ballymore Castles. I don't think this is today's Galway one -
catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000622471 (1823)

Census for 1901 shows a house belonging to a WG Seymour in the townland, but it is vacant.