Mercer's Hospital

Mercer's Hospital in Dublin, Ireland is a former hospital, converted in the 1990s into a medical centre, part of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

The hospital was founded for the sick and the poor by the will of Mary Mercer, who died in 1734 – she had provided a house for poor girls at this location ten years earlier. A number of eminent surgeons took over the running of the hospital. Jonathan Swift was on its first board of governors.

To support funding for the hospital a number of concerts were arranged over the following years. The most significant of these was the first performance of Handel's Messiah, which took place in the Ancient Musick Rooms in Fishamble Street on 13 April 1742. To provide room for a large audience, ladies were requested to lay aside their hoops and gentlemen their swords. By this means an audience of 700 was crowded into the space, and the concert realised £400.

In the 19th century Mercer's was one of the chief teaching hospitals in Dublin; it was located close to several schools of medicine, including Kirby's and the Ledwich school (run by Thomas Ledwich) in Peter St. Ledwich's brother Edward became surgeon and lecturer at the hospital. Among other surgeons who practised there in the latter half of the 19th century were Drs. Butcher, Mason, Nixon and Edward Stamer O'Grady.

In the late 1880s trouble broke out among the staff, leading to charges being brought against Dr. O'Grady, senior surgeon at the hospital. In October 1887 he was accused of insulting his professional colleagues to such an extent that they were unable to work with him. He had also charged one of the members of the board with loitering in the female ward for immodest purposes. Some of the staff left. Lectures were disrupted and the numbers of students fell. The row continued into the 1890s until finally he and most of the staff were dismissed by the governors, and he refused to seek re-election. O'Grady died at home on 18 October 1897.

A new staff was appointed in 1898, under the rule of Dr. ("Bull") Elliott. Among them was Sir John Lumsden.

The current building was designed by J.H. Brett in 1884.

Among the notable physicians who have been associated with Mercer's Hospital are:

At the bi-centennial anniversary of the hospital in 1934 the staff included: Charles B. Maunsell, Seton Pringle, Bethel Solomons, William de Courcy Wheeler and Gibbon Fitzgibbon. House physicians were Dr. Wentworth Taylor and Dr. Muriel Smiddy.

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