The Meath Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal na Mí) was a general hospital in the Earl of Meath's Liberty in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

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 ...

. It was absorbed into the Tallaght Hospital in June 1998.

History

The hospital was opened to serve the sick and poor in the crowded area 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 ...

in Dublin in 1753.The Meath Foundation
It then moved to larger premises in Heytesbury Street in 1822. 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 Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...

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

Notable physicians

Notable physicians included: * John Cheyne (1777–1836), appointed a physician in the hospital in 1811. *

Sir Philip Crampton Sir Philip Crampton, 1st Baronet, Royal Society, FRS (7 June 1777 – 10 June 1858) was an eminent Irish people, Irish surgeon and anatomist. He was President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in 1811, 1820, 1844 and 1855. Life ...

(1777–1858), appointed surgeon to the hospital in 1798 (though not fully qualified). *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. *

Francis Rynd Francis Rynd AM, MRCS, MRIA (1801–1861) was an Irish physician, known for inventing the hollow needle used in hypodermic syringes. Background Rynd was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1801 to James Rynd and his third wife Hester Fleetwood, of Rynd ...

(1801-1861), physician and inventor of the hypodermic syringe. * Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich (1823–1858), appointed to take over from Philip Crampton in 1858. *Rawdon Macnamara (1822–1893), appointed a surgeon in 1861 (a post his father had occupied). * Arthur Wynne Foot, physician and curator to the hospital's pathological museum before leaving to become a lecturer in the Ledwich School. * Sir Lambert Ormsby (1850-1923), appointed a surgeon to the hospital in 1872 and provided service for over fifty years.

History

Notable physicians

References

Further reading