THE COOMBE MEMORIAL THE LIBERTIES OF DUBLIN

My mother, who will be 99 in two weeks, was a nurse in the Coombe Hospital after returning from London at the end of WW2.

In 1825 two women, making an attempt to reach the Rotunda Hospital, perished together in the snow with their newborn babies. In 1826 The Coombe Lying-In Hospital was founded.

What you see in my photographs was the entrance until 1967 when the hospital moved to a new location.

The plaque at this site reads as follows:

“Towards the end of the 1825, two women in a vain attempt to reach the Rotunda hospital perished, together with their new born in the snow. When this became known, a number of benevolent and well disposed people founded the Coombe Lying-in Hospital in the year 1826 for the relief of poor women. Leading the charitable Committee was a Mrs. Margaret Boyle of Upper Street, Dublin.”

The old structure was retained and restored by Dublin Corporation as a memorial to the many of mothers who gave birth in the Coombe Lying-in Hospital and also to the generosity of the staff and friends of the hospital.