Skibbereen
DAN STARED AT THE EMACIATED CORPSE OF DENIS MCKENNEDY, A labourer on the relief roadworks. As he prepared his instruments for the post mortem, he remembered his days as an undergraduate in Edinburgh. Many of his fellow medical students were overcome when confronted with a cadaver, but he had never been affected in that way. He was innately curious about the human body, discovering how it worked and why life had been taken from it. The examination of organs, tissue and bone revealed more than any textbook and usually provided proof of cause of death.
‘I suppose another man from the works,’ nodded Dr Patrick Dore, who was assisting him.
They both found this work difficult of late, for they had to carry out post mortems on some of the unfortunates found dead in the district’s fields and ditches, roads and laneways. Men who had once been strong and able and willing to work, but had died of starvation and fever contracted from the poor conditions they were forced to endure.
Recently, Dan had carried out a post mortem on a similar case – Jeremiah Hegarty, another labourer discovered dead by the side of the road. On examination, his intestines had been found to be devoid of food. At the official inquest, Dan had reported that Hegarty had died from lack of nourishment and exposure.
‘I see this man died on the seventeenth of October,’ noted Dr Dore as he consulted Mr McKennedy’s notes. ‘His body is in a worse state than most we have examined.’
Dan could see immediately that the corpse was lacking any sign of muscle or fatty tissue. It was one of the most attenuated that he had ever examined. There was no trace of fat anywhere around the abdomen and scarcely a vestige of omentum. All the adipose matter had been absorbed by the body.
‘There is no food in the stomach or small intestine,’ he remarked as he examined the man’s innards, which were blanched and empty. ‘And all I can see is what appears to be a small quantity of cabbage mixed with excrement in his bowel.’
The two doctors looked at each other, both moved by the plight of the man before them.
‘How did this poor fellow manage to find the strength to work at all?’ questioned Dr Dore.
‘Apparently, Mr McKennedy had not been paid since the tenth of October,’ Dan said angrily. ‘It’s appalling that another good man was forced to walk miles and do heavy labouring work for a pittance without any sustenance and nourishment. This travesty cannot continue!’
There were few in attendance at the inquest into Denis McKennedy’s death held at the courthouse in Skibbereen. The Board of Works tried to lay the blame on a pay clerk, Mr Hungerford, who had made an administrative error, which had resulted in Mr McKennedy not being paid when due.
Dan took up his notes and began to read aloud the detailed record of the autopsy.
‘The only sign of any form of food I could find in Mr McKennedy’s bowels was some cabbage leaf.’
A woman near the back sobbed loudly and he could sense the embarrassment of the court officials.
‘Therefore, following a full autopsy and examination of the body of the deceased, I find that Mr Denis McKennedy died of starvation owing to the gross negligence of the Board of Works.’
There was a stunned silence at his direct accusation of the Board, followed by a murmur of dissent from the officials. He could see the clerk cast his eyes to heaven, but Dan continued, for he was the court-appointed physician carrying out post mortems on such men.
‘And this shall be entered in the records,’ Dan concluded loudly, determined that the truth be told and written up officially.