Dr Killeen of Brick Lane

[Gary Barnett]

Side by Side maps do have some limited Irish coverage, but only back into the 1940s (comparing to satellite imaging)...

Thanks, Dave.

I’d like to find out where the Dispensary was when Killeen was running it. I discovered a property website where the old Kilaniv Dispensary was being advertised for sale, but I suspect that is one that was built after Killeen had died.

[Gary Barnett]

This site has been very useful. It confirmed where Cloonfeagh House was. That was and still is the ‘seat’ of the Killeens, I believe.

https://www.osi.ie/products/professi...rical-mapping/

[Gary Barnett]

According to the ELO,

Dr. T. R. Keeling gave his evidence as follows:- ‘I am a fully qualified doctor practicing at Brick-lane, and was called to the deceased on the morning of the 7th of August at about half-past five.’

What a funny thing for a doctor to say: ‘I am a fully-qualified doctor. And the way Killeen’s evidence reads, you might be forgiven for imagining that PC Barrett said to John Reeves, ‘Go and fetch Dr Killeen from Brick Lane - at once!’

I think it’s far more likely that he said, ‘Go and fetch Dr Swyer from Brick Lane...’ But rather than heeding the call himself, Dr Swyer, having been mugged in Osborne street a short while before, volunteered his relatively inexperienced assistant in his place. As the old saying goes, ‘Why keep a dog and bark yourself?’ As the new boy, Killeen would have been given all the dirty jobs. Attending a crime scene in the early hours in George Yard Buildings, carrying out an autopsy on the doss-house unfortunate victim and then having to give evidence at the inquest was perhaps not the most pleasant job on offer.

I wonder how many - if any - PMs Killeen had personally conducted by early August, 1888. Perhaps he was in need of the experience, and eager to heed the call to GYB.

By 1891, Swyer had moved from Brick Lane to the (slightly) more up-market Whitechapel Road, and he subsequently left the East End altogether and emigrated to the US.

[Robert Linford]

I think maybe Killeen was pre-empting any suggestion that he was only a medical student - after all, he was very young.

[Gary Barnett]

I think maybe Killeen was pre-empting any suggestion that he was only a medical student - after all, he was very young.

I think you are right. In fact, I think he may have considered his brief time in Whitechapel as part of his education.

[Gary Barnett]

Cloonfeagh House sat (sits) at the end of a J-shaped track.

[Gary Barnett]

Cloonfeagh House sat (sits) at the end of a J-shaped track.

[ATTACH]21297[/ATTACH]

Just saying...

[Gary Barnett]

[Gary Barnett]

The very helpful chap from the Clare Library sent me this:



You’ll notice there’s a farmer named Michael Killeen recorded in Kilcornan, and judging by the Cloonfeagh example, the main house in Kilcornan townland, even if it was no more than a large farmhouse, may well have been called ‘Kilcornan House’ by default. Whether this Michael Killeen was Tim’s dad, or any kind of a relative, I have no idea.

And there had been an issue in 1885/6 that the MO for the Kilkishen Dispensary District did not reside there. Perhaps Killeen filled in (briefly) as a sort of locum.

[Gary Barnett]

[ATTACH]21301[/ATTACH]

I checked to see if this might have been one of Tim’s.

It seems not, he stumped up his dues on 31/3/04, without having to be dragged into court this time. His name was transcribed as J.R. Killeen, so I’d missed it. He had no less than 5 dogs at the time:

Fawn greyhound
Black greyhound
Black Spaniel
Liver and white cocker spaniel
Red setter

[Howard Brown]

Photos and map posted by Bruce Collie.


The home and surgery of Dr Timothy Killeen at 68 Brick Lane. He attended Martha Tabram at George Yard. His time in Whitechapel seems to be a short one, as he is recorded as being back in Ireland in 1891.
-Bruce Collie-

[Gary Barnett]

Thanks, How. As we see below, Killeen was almost certainly back in Ireland by 1889.

One of the things I’ve just noted and posted over at the other place is that it apparently took Killeen half an hour to get to GYB, which was a few minutes’ walk away from 68, Brick Lane.

Of course, it’s possible that 68, Brick Lane was his business premises but not his residence.

[Gary Barnett]

Thanks, How. As we see below, Killeen was almost certainly back in Ireland by 1889.

One of the things I’ve just noted and posted over at the other place is that it apparently took Killeen half an hour to get to GYB, which was a few minutes’ walk away from 68, Brick Lane.

Of course, it’s possible that 68, Brick Lane was his business premises but not his residence.

At a later inquest, Killeen stated that he resided at 68, Brick Lane.

[Gary Barnett]

Here’s more on the state of the teaching of pathology in Dublin in the 1880s. There’s no mention of King and Queen’s College where Killeen trained.

The Dr Mapother mentioned was one of the most prominent Irish doctors of his day. He was the first medical officer of health for Dublin and was surgeon in ordinary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1880 to 1886. Presumably he knew what he was talking about.






From The Lancet 18th February, 1888.

[Gary Barnett]

Here’s more on the state of the teaching of pathology in Dublin in the 1880s. There’s no mention of King and Queen’s College where Killeen trained.

The Dr Mapother mentioned was one of the most prominent Irish doctors of his day. He was the first medical officer of health for Dublin and was surgeon in ordinary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland from 1880 to 1886. Presumably he knew what he was talking about.


[ATTACH]21387[/ATTACH]



From The Lancet 18th February, 1888.

...the omission of the licensing bodies to have attendance on lectures and demonstrations [in pathology] made compulsory...

If they will only require attendance on a three months’ course...


It’s appearing more and more plausible that Killeen had little or no academic or practical experience of the PM procedure when he examined Tabram.