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Statue of Jesus Christ taken down from Co. Kerry hospital

PATRICK COOPER,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Saturday, March 6, 2010, 9:26 AM

Updated Saturday, March 6, 2010, 11:50 AM

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What the statue looked like before it was taken down

A statue of Jesus Christ that sat on top of Killarney Community Hospital for over 70 years has been taken down for health and safety reasons.

However, the decision by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to do so has caused extreme stress among town locals and clergy, who believe the decision is based more on political correctness than structural instability.

"People I visited today are extremely upset. We are demanding it be put back, " Fr. Kevin McNamara, who works in the parish, told The Irish Independent. "This statue didn't fall on anybody."

Local Councilor Brendan Cronin wants to see the documentation that proves the statue was a public hazard.

Cronin argues that the HSE’s decision could have a detrimental effect on older patients at the hospital who derive comfort from the statue during vulnerable times in their lives.

"Where is the building survey that says this statue was a risk?" he asks.

The HSE released the following statement about the issue: "The statue is being removed as it is posing a health and safety risk due to deterioration from weathering.

“It is the intention of the HSE to find a more suitable location on the site of the community hospital for the statue to ensure that the current health and safety risk will no longer be of concern.”

The HSE also added that it was the decision of management at the hospital to remove the statue.

Nster.com

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killowen | Aug 17, 2010, 03:55 PM EDT

Put Moses up there shure he got us all a rock and rollin

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murphy666 | Mar 12, 2010, 11:07 AM EST

Get Jesus in from the cold.

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Eireabu | Mar 10, 2010, 07:09 AM EST

Crazy anti-Christian nonsense. Where is an engineer's report? "HSE to find a more suitable location on the site" - check out their basement or rubbish skip. The statue of Christ the Redeemer on the Rio hilltop is 700 tons of concrete.

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Watereskhill | Mar 09, 2010, 11:55 PM EST

In other columns here the Irish poet Yeats (a Protestant who cherished every inch of the landscape) remarked that 'Romantic Ireland is dead' He would be the first to re-instate this statue and argue as to it's removal as an esthete and schollar. Are we to become an abreviated people sanitized by cow-towing to this one and that? The huge statue of Christ on a hill with open arms overlooking Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, ten tons of concrete, has not been considered a health hazard. I've stood under it without fear of it keeling over. I'm with Yeats.

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marfran | Mar 09, 2010, 10:50 PM EST

I think this is a sad, sick sign of the times!

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margemcclory | Mar 09, 2010, 05:46 PM EST

I think it would be a great loss to the hospital & the community if the statue wasn't put in a new place on the grounds of the hospital.

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IrishAndProud | Mar 09, 2010, 03:12 PM EST

So, whilst the Irish authorities are deliberately expunging Xtian symbols from Ireland (and then lying about why), here's what they ARE allowing into Eire: http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/periscope/now-al-qaeda-operating-in-ireland-87121142.html Mind you, this is a link to another article right here on Irish Central. Xtianity is being deliberately expunged, whilst Al-Quaida is growing, unfettered and unmolested. Sorry for my blunt honesty here, folks...but it's this kind of thing that makes me want to beat the living hell out of the Irish government until they come to their senses. They're in a zombie-like, politically-correct trance, and dissolving their own country in the name of 'tolerance.' No country, no matter how tolerant, should allow things into it that destroy it. Islam only DESTROYS Ireland, and has even openly, verbally stated so. And yet, it's 'oh, let's show how un-racist we are and LET THEM IN HERE!' Voila: Al-Quaida in Ireland (and something tells me they're not here to enhance IRISH culture). Read that article above I've just linked to. I've left some thoughts there, as well.

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killowen | Mar 09, 2010, 11:42 AM EST

Moses should be placed atop hospital - that's what they are after.

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chaplainmiles | Mar 09, 2010, 01:47 AM EST

So HSE quoteth, "The (Jesus) statue is being removed as it is posing a health and safety risk due to deterioration from weathering."(?) This is known in literature as expanding facts in order to enhance the story line. A very creative statement (hopefully the word "creative" doesn't upset HSE). Will this become a legal precedent to remove all statues from all buildings everywhere, that might fall off and land on top of an HSE member?. Nope, only religious statues. So, is St. Peter's in Rome next? That will be quite a job removing all the statues there. As for the statue of Jesus Christ on the top of Co.Kerry Hospital that is causing such a fuss, it is interesting to note that the HSE declares that the statue also poses "a HEALTH (and safety) risk due to deterioration from weathering." It might indeed pose a health risk for leftist atheist Marxists who tend to get sick over any visible Christian symbol. Rev. Austin Miles--From across the pond.

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SpIrish | Mar 08, 2010, 09:48 PM EST

Borefield, I'm with you. I may have left the Catholic fold myself, but I have chosen to embrace Unitarianism rather than atheism or agnosticism because "Bidden or unbidden, God is present."

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borefield | Mar 08, 2010, 08:07 PM EST

People wonder why there are so many earthquakes, flooding, mud slides and various other unusual weather conditions: check the Bible for the answers. People should really think about bringing God back into their lives, it doesn't have to be a Catholic God, just a Higher Power and some Spiritual Reflections each day.

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CanadianPat | Mar 08, 2010, 05:33 PM EST

Freethinker666, Why are you getting your knickers in a twist, as you say it is only a statue and a flag is only a bit of cloth. It means something to the people that put it up, and to the people who would like to see it stay. To you it means nothing so why are you taking it so personal. No one else is shouting(using Caps.)!

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IrishAndProud | Mar 08, 2010, 05:30 PM EST

And then you get sarcastic people like 'freethinker666' who are either oblivious to (or more likely, wholeheartedly supportive of) the EXPUNGING of all faith (except Islam) from Eire...which is the real motivation, here...and who wish to impose secularism on the island, thereby doing PRECISELY what he/she's just accused the Xtians of doing. No one is telling YOU to look at the statue, 'freethinker'...and you're really anything BUT a 'free' thinker.

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IrishAndProud | Mar 08, 2010, 05:21 PM EST

Sheer gutlessness. This thing was taken down by the p.c. authorities in Eire (the same bunch of self-destructing buffoons who let MUSLIMS ever set foot on the island), and they don't even have the guts to just say so openly. They come up with some hare-brained 'safety concerns' yarn (then why didn't they just FIX it, instead of removing it?).

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IrishAndProud | Mar 08, 2010, 01:32 PM EST

THE HORROR, THE HORROR, THEY TOOK DOWN A STATUE OF J.C. THEY ARE ATTACKING MY FAITH, IF I CAN'T SEE THAT STATUE EVERY DAY, I WILL GO TO HELL!!!!!!!! Listen you morons, it is a statue, nothing more than some artist idea of what Christ looked like. Get over yourself,no one is telling you what you can or cannot believe.

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