The Meath Hospital (Irish: Ospidéal na Mí) was a general hospital in the Earl of Meath's Liberty in Dublin, Ireland. It was absorbed into the Tallaght Hospital in June 1998.

Meath Hospital
Health Service Executive
Meath Hospital, now a respite home
Meath Hospital is located in Central Dublin
Meath Hospital
Shown in Dublin
Geography
LocationDublin, Ireland
Coordinates53°20′09″N 6°16′11″W / 53.3359°N 6.2698°W / 53.3359; -6.2698
Organisation
Care systemHSE
TypeGeneral
History
Opened1753
Closed1998

History

edit
 
A photograph of nurses in the Meath Hospital, Dublin in 1872.

The hospital was opened to serve the sick and poor in the crowded area of the Liberties in Dublin in 1753.[1]

A dedicated hospital building was later constructed in the Coombe with Anthony Brabazon, 8th Earl of Meath laying the foundation stone on 10 October 1770.[2][3]

It then moved to larger premises fronting Heytesbury Street off Long Lane in 1822 with its previous premises becoming The Coombe Hospital from then onwards.[4][5][6]

In the nineteenth century the Meath Hospital achieved worldwide fame as a result of the revolutionary teaching methods and groundbreaking research carried out by Robert Graves and William Stokes, physicians of the hospital. One example was when during a typhus epidemic Robert Graves introduced the revolutionary idea of giving food during the illness ("he fed fevers" was what Graves requested be inscribed on his tombstone).[7]

It was absorbed into the Tallaght Hospital in June 1998.[8] The original building was subsequently converted for use as a respite home.[9]

Notable physicians

edit

Notable physicians included:

  • John Cheyne (1777–1836), appointed a physician in the hospital in 1811.[10]
  • Sir Philip Crampton (1777–1858), appointed surgeon to the hospital in 1798 (though not fully qualified).[11]
  • Patrick Harkan, of Raheen, County Roscommon, appointed a physician in the hospital in 1817. He later went on to the Cork Street Fever Hospital, where he remained for forty years.[12]
  • Francis Rynd (1801-1861), physician and inventor of the hypodermic syringe.[13]
  • Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich (1823–1858), appointed to take over from Philip Crampton in 1858.[14]
  • Rawdon Macnamara (1822–1893), appointed a surgeon in 1861 (a post his father had occupied).[15]
  • Arthur Wynne Foot, physician and curator to the hospital's pathological museum before leaving to become a lecturer in the Ledwich School.[16]
  • Sir Lambert Ormsby (1850-1923), appointed a surgeon to the hospital in 1872 and provided service for over fifty years.[17]

References

edit
  1. ^ The Meath Foundation Archived 2011-06-27 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ "Medical history of the Meath Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary, from its foundation in 1753 down to the present time : including biographical sketches of the surgeons and physicians who served on its staff / [Lambert Hepenstal Ormsby]". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  3. ^ "Architecture @ Archiseek.com - 1771 - The Coombe Lying-in Hospital, Dublin". 16 September 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  4. ^ "Meath Hospital, Heytesbury Street, Dublin 8, DUBLIN". Buildings of Ireland. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  5. ^ "Meath Hospital". Age and Knowledge. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  6. ^ "1821 – Meath Hospital, Long Lane, Dublin | Architecture @ Archiseek.com". 20 January 2015. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  7. ^ Typhus in Ireland Archived 2009-12-04 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "This day in 1998: Tallaght University Hospital opened its doors". The Echo. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  9. ^ "Meath Community Hospital". Irish Nursing Homes. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  10. ^ Doyle, D (December 2006). "Eponymous doctors associated with Edinburgh, Part 2--David Bruce, John Cheyne, William Stokes, Alexander Monro Secundus, Joseph Gamgee". The Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 36 (4): 374–81. PMID 17526135.
  11. ^ "The Late Sir Philip Crampton". British Medical Journal. 1 (78): 521–522. 1858. PMC 2251290. PMID 20743387.
  12. ^ Fitzpatrick, William J. (1900). History of the Dublin Catholic Cemeteries. Dublin: The Offices of the Catholic Cemeteries' Committee. pp. 86.
  13. ^ "Francis Rynd". Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science. 33. Fannin and Company: 254. 1862.
  14. ^ Norman, Conolly (1892). "Ledwich, Thomas Hawkesworth" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  15. ^ "Dr Rawdon Macnamara's evidence at the trial of Florence Maybrick" (PDF). 5 August 1889. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  16. ^ "Arthur Wynne Foot, M.D.Univ.Dubl., F.R.C.P.I". Br Med J. 2 (2072): 779–780. 15 September 1900. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.2072.779. ISSN 0007-1447. Retrieved 26 December 2020.
  17. ^ "Sir Lambert Ormsby". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 5 May 2019.

Further reading

edit