THE NATIONAL OUTCRY over the National Maternity Hospital, and whether it might be subject to religious influence, has convulsed the country over the last fortnight.
Roughly 100,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the proposed €300m hospital be retained in State hands, and not left in the hands of the St Vincent's Hospital Group - which is in itself owned by the Sisters of Charity.
Nobody denies that the hospital is badly needed. Nobody denies that the new site is the best one possible. But the row over possible religious influence, and whether the State can effectively stop it, has put the project right in the centre of a bitter divide.
It pits pragmatism versus idealism, Church versus State... and it has almost literally torn a family apart.
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