St Patrick's University Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Ollscoile Naomh Pádraig) is a

teaching hospital A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical centre that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located ...

at Kilmainham 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 ...

. The building, which is bounded by Steeven's Lane to the east, and

Bow Lane West Bow Lane West () is a street in Dublin, Ireland. Location Bow Lane West runs from Bow Bridge to James's Street along the southern side of St Patrick's University Hospital. Bow Bridge crosses the River Camac. History Bow Lane West first ap ...

to the south, is managed by St Patrick’s Mental Health Services.

History

The hospital was founded with money bequeathed by the author,

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

, following his death as "St. Patrick's Hospital for Imbeciles". He was keen that his hospital be situated close to a general hospital because of the links between physical and mental ill-health, so St. Patrick's was built beside Dr Steevens' Hospital. The hospital, which was designed by George Semple, opened in 1747. In ''"Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift"'', the poet anticipated his own death:

''He gave the little Wealth he had,''
''To build a House for Fools and Mad:''
''And shew'd by one satyric Touch,''
''No Nation wanted it so much:''
''That Kingdom he hath left his Debtor,''
''I wish it soon may have a Better.''

Swift himself was declared of unsound mind by a Commission of Lunacy in 1742. Will Durant said of him: "He went a whole year without uttering a word." Richard Leeper, who was appointed Resident Medical Superintendent in 1899, introduced a series of important initiatives including providing work and leisure activities for the patients. Norman Moore, who was appointed Resident Medical Superintendent in 1946, introduced occupational therapy, including crafts and farm work to the patients. After the introduction of deinstitutionalisation in the late 1980s the hospital went into a period of decline. In 2008 the hospital announced the expansion of its outpatient services to a series of regional centres across Ireland. A mental health facility for teenagers known as the "Willow Grove Adolescent Inpatient Unit" opened at the hospital in October 2010.

Services

The hospital, which is affiliated with Trinity College Dublin, has 241 inpatient beds.

History

Services

References

Further reading