OF TIMES GONE BY: Dr. Tom McGinley’s dream a reality as Foyle Hospice opens - June 1991
The dream of a Derry doctor became a reality and the North West lived up to its reputation as one of the most caring and generous communities in Ireland, with the official opening yesterday of the Foyle Hospice.
Following a moving and highly emotional ceremony, two little Derry girls, Clare McLaughlin, and Emma Robinson, one Catholic and the other Protestant, who were only four years old when their mothers died of cancer, cut the tape to officially open the facility.
Yesterday’s ceremony heard that the Hospice would ensure, as its staff had done for the girls’ mothers, that the terminally ill would make the final steps in their journey through life with dignity.
It was a proud, historic and indeed joyous day for Derry and the man who had inspired the community to become involved in what many regarded as the impossible dream.