The Rotunda Hospital (; legally the Hospital for the Relief of Poor Lying-in Women, Dublin) is a

maternity hospital A maternity hospital specializes in caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth. It also provides care for newborn infants, and may act as a centre for clinical training in midwifery and obstetrics. Formerly known as lying-in hospitals, most ...

Parnell Street Parnell Street () is a street in Dublin, Ireland, which runs from Capel Street in the west to Gardiner Street and Mountjoy Square in the east. It is at the north end of O'Connell Street, where it forms the south side of Parnell Square. History ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland, now managed by RCSI Hospitals. The Rotunda entertainment buildings in

Parnell Square Parnell Square () is a Georgian square sited at the northern end of O'Connell Street in the city of Dublin, Ireland. It is in the city's D01 postal district. History Formerly named ''Ruthland Square'', it was renamed after Charles Stewart ...

are no longer part of the hospital complex.

History

The hospital was founded by

Bartholomew Mosse Bartholomew Mosse (1712 – 16 February 1759) was an Irish surgeon and impresario responsible for founding the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. Early life Bartholemew Mosse was born in Dysart, 2 km east of Portlaoise (then called Maryborough), t ...

, a surgeon and

midwife A midwife (: midwives) is a health professional who cares for mothers and Infant, newborns around childbirth, a specialisation known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughou ...

who was appalled at the conditions that pregnant women had to endure, in George's Lane in March 1745. It was granted by royal charter on 2 December 1756 by King George II.

Lying-in Lying-in is the term given to the European forms of postpartum confinement, the traditional practice involving long bed rest before and after giving birth. The term and the practice it describes are old-fashioned or archaic, but lying-in u ...

is an archaic term for childbirth (referring to the month-long

bed rest Bed rest, also referred to as the rest-cure, is a medical treatment in which a person lies in bed for most of the time to try to cure an illness. Bed rest refers to voluntarily lying in bed as a treatment and not being confined to bed because of ...

prescribed for

postpartum confinement Postpartum confinement is a traditional practice following childbirth. Those who follow these customs typically begin immediately after the birth, and the seclusion or special treatment lasts for a culturally variable length: typically for one mo ...

). The venture was very successful and Mosse raised money through concerts, exhibitions and even a lottery to establish larger premises. The hospital moved to its current premises in 1757, designed by

Richard Cassels Richard Cassels (1690 – 1751), also known as Richard Castle, was an architect who ranks with Edward Lovett Pearce as one of the greatest architects working in Ireland in the 18th century. Cassels was born in 1690 in Kassel, Germany. Although ...

, where it became known as "The New Lying-In Hospital". The

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

Chapel was opened in 1762. Open to the public, it provided a healthy income to the hospital annually, Dr. Mosse successfully encouraging wealthy Protestant Dubliners to attend service there. Records indicate that around 1781, "when the hospital was imperfectly ventilated, every sixth child died within nine days after birth, of convulsive disease; and that after means of thorough ventilation had been adopted, the mortality of infants, within the same, in five succeeding years, was reduced to one in twenty". Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org). This issue was not limited to the Lying-In-Hospital. In that era, ventilation improvement was a general issue in patient care, Full text at Internet Archive (archive.org) along with other issues of sanitation and hygiene, and the conditions in which surgeons such as

Robert Liston Robert Liston (28 October 1794 – 7 December 1847) was a British surgeon. Liston was noted for his speed and skill in an era prior to anaesthesia, anaesthetics, when speed made a difference in terms of pain and survival. He was the first Pro ...

in Britain and elsewhere, had to operate. p.43

Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during th ...

famously worked on the design of safe and healthy hospitals. The first

caesarean section Caesarean section, also known as C-section, cesarean, or caesarean delivery, is the Surgery, surgical procedure by which one or more babies are Childbirth, delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen. It is often performed because va ...

in Ireland was undertaken at the hospital in 1889. By 1993, the hospital was still functioning as a maternity hospital.

Rotunda

The eponymous Rotunda, designed by James Ensor, was completed just in time for a reception hosted by James FitzGerald, Marquess of Kildare in October 1767. The extensive Rotunda Rooms, designed by Richard Johnston and built adjacent to the rotunda, were completed in 1791. By the early 19th century the hospital had become known as the Rotunda Hospital, after its most prominent architectural feature. The Rotunda became a theatre, where the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers (), also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army, was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland. It was ostensibly formed in response to the format ...

' first public meeting was held in 1913, and later housed the Ambassador Cinema. The Rotunda Rooms now house the

Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochla ...

Architecture

Patrick Wyse Jackson, curator of the Geological Museum in

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, assessed the building in 1993 as part of his book ''"The Building Stones of Dublin: A Walking Guide"'' with the following remarks: :'' "The walls of the current building dating from 1757 are faced with Leinster

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and Kilgobbin granite... The former building was executed in

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...

and Leinster granite, to which a sculptured

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

of ox heads and other panels were added. These are interesting as they are made of

Coade stone Coade stone or ''Lithodipyra'' or ''Lithodipra'' () is stoneware that was often described as an artificial stone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was used for moulding neoclassical architecture, neoclassical statues, a ...

, a fashionable artificial stone used widely in the late 1700s."'' The Rotunda or "round room", and the buildings now occupied by the

were later additions.

Services

The Rotunda Hospital, as both a maternity hospital and also as a training centre (affiliated with

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

) is notable for having provided continuous service to mothers and babies since inception, making it the oldest continuously operating maternity hospital in the world. In 2025, the total number of babies born at the hospital increased to more than 900,000 since it opened its doors.

Criticism

In 2000 the Rotunda Hospital was one of two Dublin maternity hospitals found to have illegally retained organ tissue from babies without parental consent. The tissue removed in post-mortem examinations was retained for some years. The Rotunda hospital admitted that permission should have been sought for this process to be allowed to take place. A medical negligence award was approved in 2020 for a young boy who developed

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, spasticity, stiff muscles, Paresis, weak muscles, and tremors. There may b ...

as a result of complications with his delivery at the hospital in 2004.

References

Sources

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External links

* {{Authority control 1745 establishments in Ireland Teaching hospitals in Dublin (city) Teaching hospitals of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Teaching hospitals of the University of Dublin, Trinity College Rotundas in Europe Hospitals established in the 1740s Parnell Square Health Service Executive hospitals Richard Cassels buildings Maternity hospitals Georgian architecture in Dublin (city)