A Medical Woman – The Life and Times of Dr. Mary Strangman [1872-1943]

The Minaun Community Theatre Group in Co. Waterford spend a year researching, writing, producing and performing this 90-minute play depicting the extraordinary life of an extraordinary woman. After four sold-out shows in Waterford, we are delighted to host this very special performance in Ballymaloe Grainstore with the support of Darina Allen and the Ballymaloe Cookery School.

A bit about Mary Strangman:

Born in Carriganore, Waterford, Mary Somerville Parker Strangman was one of the first female medical doctors in Ireland and the U.K., and she became Waterford’s first female councillor in 1912.  After qualifying from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1896, Mary went to England where she trained, lectured and was an early pioneer in the field of alcoholism and morphine addiction.  

Returning to Waterford in 1902, Mary campaigned for social reform and equal rights for women. True to her father’s Quaker principles, Mary focused on providing for the poor.  Most notably she tackled the horrific challenge of tuberculosis which ravaged a city with the highest infant mortality rates in the entire country.

Mary established a medical practice which provided free services to the poor. She successfully lobbied the Waterford City Council, despite male hostility, to provide adequate sanitation and a fully-staffed medical dispensary including two jubilee nurses.  She was on the executive committee of Irishwomen’s Suffrage Federation and was a founding member and Honorary Treasurer of Waterford’s branch of the Women’s National Health Association which aimed to educate the public that tuberculosis was preventable and treatable.  Retiring from public office in 1920, Mary continued to serve through her general practice and as physician at Waterford County and City Infirmary and Newtown School.

The impact of Mary’s ‘freedom to serve’ philosophy in Waterford City is incalculable as was the number of lives saved through her actions.  Without doubt Dr. Mary Strangman was one of Waterford’s most unsung heroes until she was recently honoured with the erection of not one but two Waterford Civic Trust blue plaques, the renaming of the Large Room at City Hall in her honour, and with this modest production of her life story.

We hope you enjoy it and are inspired by the life of Mary as we have been.

‍