The Cork Street Fever Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Fiabhrais Shráid Chorcaí), also known as the House of Recovery, was a hospital located in
Cork Street
Cork Street is a street in Mayfair in the West End of London, England, with many contemporary art galleries, and was previously associated with the tailoring industry. It is part of the Burlington Estate, which was developed from the 18th centu ...
in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
.
History
The original hospital, which was located in a poor densely populated part of the
Liberties
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society f ...
but with large grounds, was designed by Samuel Johnston and built by Henry, Mullins & McMahon. It consisted of two parallel brick buildings, , three stories high, connected by a colonnade of . The eastern range was used for fever, the western for convalescent patients, in order to keep the patients separated. It opened on 14 May 1804. The objectives of the hospital were to care for the diseased in the neighbourhood and prevent the spread of infection in the homes of the poor.
[Bennett, p. 74]
An additional building, much larger than any of the former, was added in 1814, by which the hospital was rendered capable of containing 240 beds.
The hospital initially accepted fever patients from five parishes in the Liberties. A year after its foundation the catchment area was extended to the district south of the
River Liffey
The River Liffey ( Irish: ''An Life'', historically ''An Ruirthe(a)ch'') is a river in eastern Ireland that ultimately flows through the centre of Dublin to its mouth within Dublin Bay. Its major tributaries include the River Dodder, the Riv ...
as far as the
South Circular Road. By 1810 this was extended to the whole of the city of Dublin, and to all classes of applicants, which increased the financial pressure on the hospital. In the year 1812 over 2,200 patients were admitted. The hospital did succeed in checking the spread of disease, but the worsening unemployment in the Liberties following the Act of Union and occasional epidemics, such as
Scarlet fever, pushed up the mortality rate for the first few years of its existence. However, by 1815 the mortality rate in the hospital had declined to 1 in 20 (from 1 in 11 in 1804).
Dublin had six
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...
epidemics in the 18th century – it was not at the time known that typhus was caused by a louse-born organism, which flourished in unhygienic conditions. The hospital was extended between 1817 and 1819 to help cope with a national epidemic. Three thousand cases were admitted to the hospital in one month in 1818.
[Typhus in Ireland](_blank)
Another typhus epidemic hit Dublin in 1826. In the hospital, 10,000 people were treated for the infection. It was so overcrowded that tents were erected in the grounds (fortunately, over acres in extent), and these provided 400 extra beds.
In 1832 Dublin was ravaged by a
cholera epidemic. Despite the best efforts of all concerned, thousands of victims died and were hastily buried in nearby
Bully's Acre.
Typhus came again at the time of the
Irish Famine
The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...
in the late 1840s. During 1847 nearly 12,000 cases applied during a period of about ten months, although "amongst the poor at their own houses, .. vast numbers remained there, who either could not be accommodated in hospital, or who never thought of applying". Typhus returned in the 1880s, when
Gerard Manley Hopkins died of the disease in Dublin.
In 1903 the James Weir Home for Nurses was erected on the opposite side of the street to provide accommodation for up to 50 fever nurses working at the Fever Hospital.
After services were transferred to the
Cherry Orchard Hospital
Cherry Orchard Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Ghort na Silíní) is a public hospital in Ballyfermot, Dublin, Ireland.
History
The hospital, which was commissioned to replace the aging Cork Street Fever Hospital, opened in November 1953. By the 1980s ...
in
Ballyfermot
Ballyfermot () is a suburb town nw of the city aside Dublin, Ireland. It is located, seven kilometres (5 miles) west of the city centre, south of Phoenix Park, it is bordered on the north by Chapelizod, on the south by Bluebell; on the east ...
, the old Cork Street Fever Hospital closed in November 1953. The old hospital was renamed Brú Chaoimhín and converted into a nursing home.
Notable physicians
Notable physicians included:
*
Ephraim MacDowel Cosgrave
Ephraim McDowel Cosgrave (18 July 1853 – 17 February 1925) was an eminent Irish people, Irish physician, antiquary and writer.
Biography
He was born in Dublin, Ireland, son of William Alexander Cosgrave and Anna Maria, daughter of Dr. Ephraim M ...
, an eminent physician from
County Longford.
*Patrick Harkan, of Raheen, County Roscommon, a physician who arrived from the
Meath Hospital
The Meath Hospital ( ga, 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.
History
The hospital was opened to serve the sick and poor in the crowd ...
around 1820 and remained in Cork Street for 40 years.
* Christopher J McSweeney, Medical Superintendent from 1934 to 1953
Notable patients
James Whitelaw, the historian and statistician, who was also rector of
St. Catherine's, contracted a fever while ministering to the poor in the hospital and died there in February 1813.
Archives
The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland holds the archive of Cork Street Fever Hospital. Records in this collection range in date from 1801 to 2005, spanning the entire existence of Cork Street Fever Hospital (1801-1953) and over five decades of its successor institution, the Cherry Orchard Hospital.
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References
Sources
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Further reading
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{{Authority control
Hospital buildings completed in 1804
Hospitals in Dublin (city)
History of Dublin (city)
1814 establishments in Ireland
Defunct hospitals in the Republic of Ireland
1953 disestablishments in Ireland
Hospitals disestablished in 1953
Fever hospitals