St. James's Hospital

The origins of the hospital lie in a poorhouse initiated when Dublin Corporation paid £300 to acquire the site in 1603.^[3] The war between William III and James II intervened and the project was abandoned until Mary, Duchess of Ormonde, wife of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde laid a foundation stone in 1703.^[3] The pamphleteer, Jonathan Swift, lobbied for the creation of facilities for abandoned infants and, in 1727, the poorhouse was expanded by the addition of a foundling hospital.^[4] The brewer Arthur Guinness served on the board of directors in its early years.^[5]

The foundling hospital closed in 1829 and the buildings were absorbed by the South Dublin Union Workhouse.^[3] During the Easter Rising in 1916, the South Dublin Union Workhouse was occupied by rebel forces.^[3] The poorhouse evolved to become a municipal hospital known as St Kevin's Hospital, following Irish independence in 1921, and changed its name to St. James's Hospital in 1971.^[3]

The Trinity Centre, which incorporates the clinical departments of Trinity College's Medical School and its medical library, opened in 1994.^[6]

A new radiation therapy unit for cancer treatment was established at the hospital in 2012.^[7]

The St James's campus was chosen in 2012 as the site for the National Paediatric Hospital, allowing colocation with the adult hospital, and potentially "trilocation" with a future maternity hospital on the same site.^[8]

In 2015, the hospital became the first hospital in Ireland to introduce routine testing for HIV and hepatitis for all patients arriving at the hospital.^[9]

The hospital, which is the main teaching hospital for Trinity College Dublin, has 1,010 beds.^[10]

The hospital is served by James's Luas stop, as well as a number of Dublin Bus routes.^[11]

• Anne Young, founder of the first Irish school of general nursing.^[12]