Looking Back: Dr John Barker, Kilcullen medicine man

Triggered by a note in the family files, written by my father, I was prompted this week to look back at the life of one of Kilcullen's longest serving doctors, writes Brian Byrne.

Dr John E Barker passed away at his home in Liffey Bank, Kilcullen, on 6 February 1927. Retired only a few years, he had qualified as a doctor 65 years earlier and worked as a surgeon in the Army before taking up an appointment as dispensary medical officer for the Kilcullen District. He had completed almost a half-century of public service when he left that position in 1924. His work during that time had been carried out 'with distinction' according to his obituary. “He gave unstinted attention to his patients, rich and poor,” that citation noted, "and was forever remarkable for fidelity to duty, both in his public and private capacity as a doctor."

Such sentiment had been previewed after his retirement as a public doctor. A presentation was made to him in June 1924 at a function in Castlemartin House, then owned by Col F Blacker, of an illuminated address and a cheque from donations made by more than a hundred local people, all of whom were named. “During your very long period of service, extending over 48 years, by your invariable attention to the poorer people of the district, you have gained their complete confidence, respect and affection,” the address noted, adding that those involved in it were glad he had decided to remain in Kilcullen after retiring.

There's actually very little knowledge about Dr John Barker's life beyond his work as a doctor both to his community and for public health. It seems he was originally from Celbridge and qualified as an MD in Trinity College Dublin.

According to the 1901 Census, when he was aged 61, he had never married. At the time there were two other people registered as living in Liffey Bank, a coachman named William Langrill and a servant named Julia Cruice. I do have my father's note that the doctor travelled around the area 'in a coach driven by a bowler-hatted Jim Langdon'. Given that these notes would be referencing my Dad's own father's time — Dad only being eight at Dr Barker's retirement — I'm wondering if William Langrill and 'Jim Langford' are actually the same person? By 1911, William Langrill had moved out to Carnalway where he was domiciled with his wife Mary and their three children.

In the midst of the influenza pandemic of 1918/1919, which officially killed more than 20,000 people in Ireland, Dr Barker would have been in the thick of the 'frontline' effort to deal with the illness, where Kildare was one of the worst-affected counties. At that stage he would have been 78, and very vulnerable himself to a flu that was killing healthcare workers as easily as it was civilians of all ages. That probably accounts for another of my Dad's notations, about his father's young family being treated by 'Dr Tom O'Higgins from Calverstown'.

Dr Thomas Francis O'Higgins was actually the medical officer based in Fontstown, part of the Athy Poor Law Union district. As a younger doctor, and based halfway between Kilcullen and Athy, it is logical O'Higgins would have been asked to help out in the Kilcullen area. The son of a Stradbally based doctor, he was also the father of politician and Chief Justice Thomas F O'Higgins. While in Fontstown he became a Sinn Fein organiser, later being jailed a number of times before subsequently founding the Army Comrades Association, better known as the Blueshirts. He went on to a long career in Fine Gael, passing away in 1953 while still a TD and having served in two ministerial positions. 

Back to Dr Barker, throughout his career he was a regular contributor to local authority meetings in Naas, in his capacity as a public health doctor in the Naas Poor Law Union being required to provide reports on a range of matters. These included things such as the state of the water and sewerage system in Kilcullen, the health dangers of derelict buildings in the town, outbreaks of disease like diphtheria, tuberculosis, and more. In January 1899, a request from him to be allowed 'to purchase medicines on his own initiative' for the treatment of diphtheria patients in his district was granted. At the time there were about 30 such patients.

In 1906 he was elected as President of the Naas Poor Law Union, on the nomination of Patrick Berney, one of the officers of the Union. He was seconded by John Breslin.

In 1913 he is recorded as vigorously defending the right of a man who had been discharged from Peamount Sanatorium while having treatment for TB because he was allegedly out of benefit from the County Insurance Committee.

In August 1916 he complained to the Board of Guardians — the equivalent of councillors — that 'the new sewerage system in Kilcullen is useless, or worse, without proper water supply'.

In addition to normal doctoring he was also required to deal with the outcomes of accidents and a variety of violent incidents. The newspapers of his time are peppered with such accounts, of which I note but a few. 

In February 1881 he was called to attend a plaster, John Curran, who died suddenly 'of spasms of the heart'. In 1895, he attended a woman who had fallen into the fire at her home in Dunstown, and who was 'in too precarious a condition' to be removed to hospital. In February 1897 he had to see a man from Yellow Bog in Naas Workhouse who had been brought in after being beaten up. He subsequently died, though the inquest found it was not necessarily from the injuries.

In a case that shows anti-vaccinating is nothing new, Dr Barker appeared as a witness for the prosecution at the Petty Sessions in July 1916 about a family who had refused to have their child vaccinated. The defendant father said he had 'a conscientious objection ... I have known children lost through it'. The father was fined 10 shillings and 10 shillings expenses when he refused to give an undertaking that he would allow the treatment.

In November 1920 Dr Barker was called to treat two men shot by the RIC in an incident at a home in Knockbounce, just south of Kilcullen. One of them, Thomas Haslett, was employed as a shop assistant at JJ Byrne's Hardware, my grandfather's shop.

In February 1927, local Auctioneers and Valuers Denis Brennan & Son posted a notice of auction for the contents of Liffey Bank, 'Modern and Antique Furniture and Effects' of the late Dr JE Barker. Very little was of a personal nature, and probably the only specific references to his long life and work in Kilcullen were the contents of the 'Surgery'.

'Quantity medicine bottles and measures, small scales, writing desk in mahogany, surgical washstand in mahogany, fender and irons, large travelling chest, magnifying glass with all fittings complete, quantity various surgical instruments and appliances, etc.'.

'Sic transit' and all that ... but if only we had the human stories which were outlined in the room where all that paraphernalia was located.

(I would be very glad to hear of any anecdotes or memories of Dr Barker that may be in the lore of local families.)

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