Royal Hospital, Donnybrook
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox hospital
| name = Royal Hospital, Donnybrook
| org/group =
| logo =
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| image = The Royal Hospital Donnybrook.jpg
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| alt =
| caption = Entrance to the Royal Hospital, Donnybrook
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| coordinates = {{coord|53|19|30|N|06|14|55|W|display=inline,title}}
| location = Donnybrook, Dublin
| region =
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| country = Ireland
| healthcare =
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| type = Specialist
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| emergency =
| helipad =
| beds =
| speciality = Rehabilitation
| founded = 1743
| closed =
| demolished =
| website = {{URL|https://rhd.ie/}}
| other_links =
| module =
| map_type = Ireland Dublin
| map_caption= Shown in Dublin
}}
The Royal Hospital, Donnybrook ({{langx|ga|Ospidéal Ríoga, Domhnach Broc}}) is a hospital in Donnybrook, Dublin, Ireland, founded in 1743. It was originally set up as a "hospital for incurables" to provide sufferers with food, shelter and relief from their distressing conditions.
History
File:Royal Hospital for Incurables, Donnybrook.jpg
In Georgian Dublin there were a number of charitable music societies that raised money to alleviate the suffering of the poor and ill. There was no system of public welfare, nor, until much later, any general policy on the part of the government to alleviate the problem of poverty, which pervaded the city at that time. One of these societies was the Dublin Charitable Musical Society of Crow Street, the leading light of which was Richard Wesley, 1st Baron Mornington, a politician (MP for Trim 1729-1746) and amateur violinist who took part in charity concerts.{{cite web|url= https://arrow.tudublin.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=aaconmusdiss |title=Music for Mer Music for Mercer's: The Mer s: The Mercer's Hospital Music Collection and s Hospital Music Collection and Charity Music in Eighteenth-Century Dublin|page=121|year=2012|first=Tríona|last= O'Hanlon|publisher=Technological University Dublin|access-date=22 January 2025}}
=Fleet Street=
The society decided in 1743 to donate their funds to set up and support a hospital for incurables.{{cite web|url=https://www.lenus.ie/handle/10147/559526|title=Royal Hospital Donnybrook (Founded 1743): Statutory Instruments and Bye-Laws for the management of the hospital.|publisher=Lenus|access-date=9 May 2019}} A house for this purpose was rented in Fleet Street, fitted up, and opened, with a nurse, a staff of doctors and surgeons, and 23 patients as the "Hospital for Incurables, Dublin" on 23 May 1744.John Watson: The Gentleman and Citizen's Almanack for 1745, quoted in Burke, p. 3 In the early years of the hospital, the doctors included Francis Le Hunte (from County Wexford, a founder-member of the Royal Dublin Society).
=Townsend Street=
The hospital moved to Townsend Street in 1753. An illustration of this hospital features in the Dublin magazine in April 1762.{{cite web |title=Hospital for Incurables extending 76 feet / |url=https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000171830 |website=catalogue.nli.ie |access-date=22 January 2025 |language=English |date=1762}}
=Donnybrook (1793)=
In 1793 the hospital exchanged location with the Lock Hospital, which suited both hospitals and moved to Donnybrook, a suburb of the city.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5zc_AQAAMAAJ&q=Royal+Hospital%2C+Donnybrook+1793+lock+hospital&pg=PT19|title=Gentleman's and Citizen's Almanack|year=1842|publisher=Pettigrew and Oulton}} It was remodelled by James Rawson Carroll in the 1880s and received a Royal Charter and became the "Royal Hospital for Incurables, Dublin" in 1887.{{cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/dublin-s-oldest-charity-1.1168389|title=Dublin's oldest charity|publisher=Irish Times|date=2 December 2004|access-date=9 May 2019}} In the 1980s it started to specialise in rehabilitation for the elderly and services for young disabled adults and, at that time, was renamed the "Royal Hospital, Donnybrook".
References
{{reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book|last=Burke|first= Helen |year=2000|title=The Royal Hospital, Donnybrook|location=Dublin|isbn =0-9521476-0-2}}
- {{cite book|last=Fleetwood|first= John F |year=1983|title=The History of Medicine in Ireland|publisher =Skellig Press|location=Dublin}}
{{Irish hospitals}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Hospitals in Dublin (city)
Category:1743 establishments in Ireland