Two more MacDermotts followed in his footsteps. Dr F P MacDermott (no relation), at the time the doctor for Donaghmore Dispensary District, was appointed to succeed him, initially temporarily until the end of the first World War, for an additional payment of two guineas a week; he continued to live at Donaghmore.
Dr FP MacDermott
Francis Peter MacDermott was born near Balleeks, Co Armagh, into a very religious Catholic family; his eldest brother was a parish priest. He had been appointed to the Donaghmore post in December 1912. At a meeting[1] of the Newry Board of Guardians in April 1919 the dispensary districts of Poyntzpass and Donaghmore were formally amalgamated (again!), and Dr MacDermott was confirmed as the dispensary doctor for both, with an additional salary of £70 a year for his Poyntzpass responsibilities.
The National Health Service was inaugurated in July 1948.
Dr DJ MacDermott
Francis’ son, Dr Dermott J McDermott, joined his father’s practice in 1947, and became its principal doctor in September 1953 on the death of his father. Many older Poyntzpass residents will remember being treated by him.
Dermott resigned from the practice in September 1973, to take up a Health Ministry post in Belfast, and sold his house. This left Donaghmore without a surgery, much to the disgust of the locals.
The Poyntzpass & Donaghmore practice was taken over by Dr A(ngela?) Cupples, who already had a practice in Loughbrickland.
Later doctors ……….
See also Dr Pamela Marshall’s account of those in her family who served as doctors in Markethill, in “A Country practice Through Three Generations” in BIF Vol 3, 1989.
[1] During this meeting it was stated that not a single person in the Poyntzpass district had died during the 1918 influenza pandemic; this was seen as a great tribute to Dr McDermott.