| Collection Description | The 'Adelaide Institution & Protestant Hospital' opened as a voluntary hospital on 11
March 1839, at 43 (later
renumbered 39) Bride Street, Dublin. Staff members had to be Protestant (initially only
Anglican), and while
the hospital was intended initially to meet the needs of the Protestant poor in the slum
area around St
Patrick's Cathedral, Catholic outpatients were also treated. Primarily founded by the
Walsh family, Dundrum
Castle, in particular Dr Albert Walsh; it was named after Adelaide, Queen Dowager.
Money difficulties and
cramped conditions in Bride Street led to closure in 1847; the Adelaide reopened at 24
and 25 Peter Street on
18 October 1858 after a financial appeal to the Protestant gentry.
The Adelaide was a teaching hospital from 1858, and had links to the nearby Ledwich
School of Medicine
until 1889. Female students were admitted from 1887, but were refused residency until
1913. The School of
Nursing opened in 1859, with students trained by the Matron; from 2002, this became
part of the School of
Nursing & Midwifery at Trinity College, Dublin, where a nursing degree was introduced.
The hospital received
a Royal Charter in 1920; this enshrined the Adelaide Hospital Society, which in 1994
became a charitable
body sharing in the governance of the new hospital at Tallaght.
The Adelaide remained a voluntary hospital until 1960, when it accepted state funding.
After a federation
process that began in 1957, the Adelaide joined two other former voluntary hospitals in
1996 to form the
Adelaide & Meath Hospital, Dublin incorporating the National Children's Hospital, and
moved to Tallaght in
1998. [Trinity College Dublin] |
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