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Showing posts from December, 2024

Mercer's Hospital ~ 300th Anniversary ~ A Shelter, Hospital & A Space of Medicine, and Learning

This year marks 300 years since a lady by the name of Mary Mercer set up a shelter for poor girls in 1724 on the site we now know as the Mercer's building.   However, the site itself boasts over 700 years of medical history on Stephen Street Lower in Dublin. Originally known as St. Stephen’s Chapel and thought to be in existence since approximately 1230, the site had become a Lazar House (Leper Hospital) by 1394 but, returning to 1724, after ten years of the home acting as a shelter, in 1734 management of the site was taken over by a group of physicians and surgeons who together founded Mercer’s Hospital as a charitable institution which continued to operate for another 249 years. The following blog will explore aspects of the last 300 years of medical history at the Mercer's site and its connections to the wider medical profession in Ireland.     Mercer's Hospital c. 1734   RCSI Heritage Collections, J.B. Lyons Records Mercer's Hospital logo and motto- ‘Fac Similite...