One of Dublin’s main hospitals has removed the traditional Christmas crib from both its reception area and wards, upsetting patients and staff.

However, the decision by bosses at Beaumont Hospital has prompted such a backlash that many staff are now signing a petition to have the festive nativity scene restored.

When asked about its decision, a spokesman said ‘the wider hospital community is multicultural and therefore multifaith’.

However, even secular organisations such as Humanist Ireland have said Beaumont bosses have gone too far. Unlike previous years, the only nativity scene to be found in the hospital is in its chapel, which management says is open to staff, patients and relatives.

In a statement yesterday, Beaumont said it treats all religious faiths equally.

‘The hospital acknowledges that the wider hospital community is multicultural and therefore multifaith.

‘The hospital operates on an interdenominational basis, with chaplaincy facilities shared among the accredited churches assigned to the hospital, namely Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic,’ it said.

However, Fr Gerard Deegan, the administrator of Beaumont parish, supported any petition to keep the crib.

He said: ‘It is part of our Christian heritage. These supposed innovations in our society have gone crazy. We live in a multicultural society, and we respect that, but if I went to Saudi Arabia, I would have to respect their traditions. Removing the crib is, for the most part, just political correctness gone mad.’

Humanist Ireland said: ‘Most humanists would believe that Christmas is Christmas, it’s a very long tradition, and part of the symbolism of Christmas is having cribs. We see a day in the future where Ireland will be more secular and people might not want that any more, but I think it’s unreasonable to think you shouldn’t have cribs in that sort of setting — it’s doing no harm.

‘We shouldn’t get too precious about these things. There is a long tradition, there’s all sorts of symbolism around Christmas and it is unreasonable to try to quash it by administrators, so to speak, to be politically correct. It’s time to live and let live.’

In 2005, St James’s Hospital in Dublin faced a similar backlash after transferring its crib to the facility’s church. However, several hospitals across the country yesterday confirmed that they still put cribs on display.

University Hospital Limerick and its neighbouring maternity hospital have cribs on a number of wards. It said it operates a ‘common-sense approach’.

‘UL hospitals respects the spiritual practice of all denominations and none. All and no faith traditions are treated with respect and dignity throughout the group,’ the hospitals said.

St Luke’s General Hospital Carlow/Kilkenny boasts two large cribs, one in the main hospital and one in the main concourse.

‘There are numerous other smaller cribs located in most wards and various areas of the hospital,’ it said. Cribs are on display in each of the wards in Wexford General Hospital, while Tallaght Hospital in Dublin said a crib is on display in its atrium ‘as has been the annual tradition since the hospital opened’.

In Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin, cribs are displayed in main common areas and on in-patient wards. In the Mater, a crib is in the reception area of the McGivney wing.

In St Vincent’s there is a crib in both the reception and chapel. There is one in the oratory and on a number of wards of the National Maternity Hospital, while the Coombe in Dublin has one crib on its St Gerard’s Ward.

Tom Brabazon, the Fianna Fail leader on Dublin City Council, said constituents have been calling him all week demanding the crib be retained in the public area.

‘People are very upset about it. I can’t see what harm a crib could do,’ he said.

Independent councillor Paddy Bourke said he was very upset about the crib’s removal and would be raising it at a council meeting in the new year.

‘The vast majority of people want it there, and the hospital authorities are wrong if they go against that wish,’ he said.

Councillor Bourke said that he ‘absolutely’ supported the petition to preserve the crib. ‘I would understand if someone was trying to place a crib in a new place but that tradition has always been there at the hospital,’ he said.

However, Michael O’Brien, a Beaumont councillor for Solidarity, supported the hospital’s decision. He said: ‘I am in favour of separation of Church from health, education and other areas of government.’