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In 1944, Lurgan born James Deeny was appointed Chief Medical Officer for Ireland The two main problems confronting him were tuberculosis, where Ireland had the worst problem in Western Europe, and a high infant and maternal mortality rate. Deeny and his colleagues prepared a plan which led to the Tuberculosis (Establishment of Sanatoria) Act 1945. This allowed the department to acquire land compulsorily for the building of sanatoria. A White Paper Tuberculosis was published in 1946. A battle against tuberculosis began.
Some time after taking up the Dublin position, Deeny became aware of extremely high infant mortality rates in the Bessborough mother and baby home run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart order in Cork. Initial inspection did not show the cause, but on a hunch, Deeny stripped the babies and found that they all had a purulent skin infection and green diarrhoea due to a staphylococcus infection which had been ignored. He closed down the home temporarily and sacked the nun matron and the medical officer. Such a challenge to church personnel was very unusual for the time and a complaint was made by Bishop Daniel Cohalan of Cork to the Papal Nuncio. The Nuncio visited Taoiseach, Eamon De Valera, but on seeing the report on the matter he had to agree that the right steps had been taken.
Deeny later became a leading figure in the WHO, and worked globally on battling TB, and the host of other post war health concerns.
