Catholic unionism and heterodoxy in Irish Victorian Medicine: A biography of Thomas More Madden (1838-1902).

It is not easy to précis the life of gynaecologist and obstetrician Thomas More Madden. Aside from his prolific penmanship and championing of societal issues, a study of his life serves to demonstrate the crossroads at which orthodox medicine stood during the late nineteenth century - a period of transition between 'heroic' and modern health care. Reflecting this state of flux, Madden wrote several books about childbirth but he was also interested in heterodox subjects including heliotherapy and hydrotherapy. His political beliefs were no less eclectic. On one hand he was a Catholic 'Unionist', in favour of maintaining Ireland's place in the UK, but his writing was also imbued with the spirit of the Gaelic literary revival. Through his work he tried to make a case, not just for Ireland's place in the western health care tradition but also for its contribution to contemporary medicine.