Historic First Responders

A new park commemorates those who died helping the victims of a 19th-century epidemic.

When the Ireland Park Foundation began planning Dr. George Robert Grasett Park to honour the medical professionals who sacrificed their lives to treat the victims of the 1847 typhus epidemic, it would have been hard to imagine just how relevant their project would be to the present. “It’s extraordinary that the park will open in the latter stages of a pandemic or shortly thereafter,” observes Robert Kearns, founder and chair of the foundation.

From that time to the present, medical professionals have provided the frontline defence against outbreaks of illness, ranging from typhus to COVID-19. Often put- ting their own health at risk, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers try to bring comfort, hope, and treatment to those facing life-threatening illnesses.

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