Bloomfield Hospital is a non-for-profit healthcare provider in Rathfarnham providing a mental health service. It was formerly known as ''The Retreat at Bloomfield''. The hospital was significantly redeveloped in the 2000s.

History

The hospital was founded in 1812 by the

Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...

(Quakers). An AGM report from 1827 shows several members of the Pim family on the committee, with

James Pim James Pim was the key person to the establishment and operation of the first passenger railway in Ireland, the Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR), and the first commercial atmospheric railway in the world, the Dalkey Atmospheric Railway. Biog ...

, later to be heavily associated with the

Dublin and Kingstown Railway The Dublin and Kingstown Railway (D&KR), which opened in 1834, was Ireland’s first passenger railway. It linked Westland Row in Dublin with Kingstown Harbour (Dún Laoghaire) in County Dublin. The D&KR was also notable for a number of other ...

, as Treasurer. Developers made arrangements with the Religious Society of Friends to redevelop the hospital and provide a meeting house for the Quakers whilst retaining some of the old buildings.

References

Sources

* {{cite report, title=State of an Institution at Bloomfield, near Dublin, called the Retreat, for Persons afflicted with Disorders of the Mind, url=http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=BLVU1&search_scope=Primo_Central&docId=BLL01016841428&fn=permalink, date=1827, publisher=Bentham & Hardy, location=Dublin, author=Committee

External links

Official website
Teaching hospitals in Dublin (city) 1812 establishments in Ireland Teaching hospitals of the University of Dublin, Trinity College