in 1942. In 1944 he published Social Security: outlines of a scheme of national health insurance hailed at the time as Ireland's Beveridge plan and which ignited a debate about wider social welfare provision in the recently independent Ireland. It took discussion of social policy in twentieth century Ireland out of nineteenth century ideological notions such as 'poor law provision.' In 1943, the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood opened a nursing home in Ballinasloe. Dignan invited them to open a hospital. The bishop donated the land, and Portiuncula Hospital opened in 1945. References Lickmolassy by the Shannon, p. 201, John Joe Conwell, 1998, . People from County Galway Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth Roman Catholic bishops of Clonfert 1880 births 1953 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland