Portlaoise clinic:Bright yellow AA road signs on the approach roads to Portlaoise offer directions to "BreastCheck Screening". They were erected in September to assist women travelling to attend the mobile unit of a new national cancer screening service for women aged 50-64 which is visiting Co Laois.
But on Saturday the signs acquired a grimly unintentional topicality as women from across the midlands responded to a Health Service Executive summons to attend an emergency clinic at the Midland Regional Hospital. They were due to be "re-assessed" following a review of their breast cancer ultrasound tests. A separate, earlier review of mammograms carried out at the hospital discovered that nine women who had been given the all-clear were found to have cancer.
On a grey, drizzly November morning the complex of white buildings on Block Road, a residential area on the outskirts of town, was curiously quiet. A non-medical female hospital staff member said, "God help those poor women today." And added: "I suppose all the cameras will be down? It's a pity about the bad publicity because they do so much good work here."
In fact, the emergency clinic was held away from the hospital campus, 500 yards down the road, in the Cuisle Centre - a community-funded, private "support centre for people with cancer, those who have had cancer and for those who care for them".
Security guards patrolled the entrance. All day, women came and went. Many were aged in their 20s and early 30s. Most were driven in to the clinic car park by male partners; some arrived with extended family or friends. The car registrations were from Laois, Offaly, Galway, Kildare, Tipperary and further afield.
Traditionally in rural Ireland, patients dread being "sent to Dublin" - a euphemism for a serious medical condition. On Saturday, however, "Dublin" was sent down the country. Prof Arnie Hill, a consultant breast surgeon at Beaumont Hospital, had come to Portlaoise to lead the team conducting the clinical reviews.
Most of the women entered and left the clinic without speaking to the media. But Offaly woman Ann Touhy (52) emerged to say that they had "found something" as a result of her review and she was asked to travel to Beaumont Hospital yesterday for a further consultation.
Ms Touhy, a single woman who lives near the village of Shinrone, became aware of the enveloping crisis while watching a news report last Thursday night about the HSE's revelation that 97 women were to be recalled. She told reporters: "I was watching TV and realised, I am one of those women." The following morning she contacted her GP and it was he, not the HSE, who later telephoned to ask her to attend Saturday's clinic.
Ms Touhy explained that because her mother had died of breast cancer "a few years ago" she had undergone a precautionary mammogram in 2005 at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, and subsequently an ultrasound scan at Portlaoise. She had been given the all-clear.
Asked how she felt about Minister for Health Mary Harney, Ms Touhy said: "I feel sorry for the Minister. Maybe she's doing her best."
By nightfall on Saturday in Portlaoise, 82 women had attended the clinic. Most are understood to have had their "all-clear" confirmed. But for an unfortunate few, including Ms Touhy, the journey was only beginning.