The Royal Military Infirmary (RMI) 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 ...

was located at the southeastern edge of

Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park ( ga, Páirc an Fhionnuisce) is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tre ...

(''Páirc an Fhionnuisce''), one of several former British military installations in the area. The hospital buildings are now part of the Irish Department of Defence's (''An Roinn Cosanta'') estate and currently houses Ireland's

Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

(''Oifig an Stiúrthóra Ionchúiseamh Poiblí'' - ODPP). The bulk of the British Army's medical services in Dublin were transferred from the RMI to a new hospital at

Arbour Hill Arbour Hill ( ga, Cnoc an Arbhair) is an area of Dublin within the inner city on the Northside of the River Liffey, in the Dublin 7 postal district. Arbour Hill, the road of the same name, runs west from Blackhall Place in Stoneybatter, and ...

in Dublin in 1913. The Infirmary buildings are protected as they are nationally significant architecture.

History

The original RMI was designed by the English Architect James Gandon in the late Eighteenth Century. The executant architect for the building's construction was William Gibson, who did redesign some aspects of the building; the building's construction took place from 1786 to 1788. The original construction costs for the infirmary were recorded as £9000. Its design was seen as advanced and best in its class as a military hospital well after its inauguration. The Infirmary's role was to take sick soldiers who could not be adequately dealt with by regimental hospitals in the various barracks of the Dublin Garrison. Between 1824 and 1825 the Infirmary was reconfigured as a military general hospital. In 1806 the costs of the Infirmary and all other medical facilities in Ireland was costing the British Exchequer circa £15418. In 1835 soldier patients were expected to have some of their pay deducted to meet the running costs of the Infirmary. Census returns of 31 March 1901 and 2 April 1911 show that the Infirmary was operating as a general hospital for the British Military. However, the British Military had intended to close the hospital in 1911 on the completion of a new hospital which had been commenced in 1909 at Arbour Hill in Dublin. In 1910 the British Government had not decided on a purpose for the old hospital building In 1910 Lieutenant Colonel O Birt, was posted as the senior medical officer in charge of the Royal Military Infirmary. All proving that the Infirmary continued to function well beyond the date the British Government had anticipated. The Infirmary was certainly functioning as a hospital during World War 1. The RMI and all other British Military installations fell under the direct control of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between th ...

(''Saorstát Éireann'') in 1922 and the Department of Defence becoming the managing entity of the old Infirmary site and that remains the case to the present day. In 2007 there was a proposal to renovate the original Gandon building and adjacent annex and construct a subterranean annex to provide new office space for the relocation of the ODPP. This project did not take place as originally conceived.

Site Description

The Infirmary's foundation stone was laid in the presence of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the Duke of Rutland on 17 August 1786. The original main three-storey building was designed with a C-shaped footprint; it was built of granite blocks faced with

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

. The main facade (circa 60 metres in width) faces south west on raised ground overlooking the southern entrance of Phoenix Park. This frontage includes a glazed

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

tower sat above a central clock face. Inside the original Infirmary there were 13 wards (six allocated to surgical and seven allocated to medical patients) were mainly located in the two rearward orientated wings; initially these wards could accommodate 187 beds. The central building span included offices, staff accommodation, chapel and other facilities.

References

{{Reflist

External links

National Inventory of Architectural Heritage

Curious Ireland The Irish Army Headquarters, Phoenix Park. Dublin City 1786

the National Library of Ireland Catalogue - Royal Infirmary, Phoenix Park, Dublin
1788 establishments in Ireland Former military installations Phoenix Park Hospitals in Dublin (city) Buildings and structures in Dublin (city) Hospitals established in the 1780s Military history of Ireland Defunct hospitals in the Republic of Ireland

History

Site Description

See also

References

External links