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The Rotunda Hospital

The Rotunda Hospital was established by Dr Bartholomew Mosse (1712-59), a surgeon and midwife born in Maryborough (now Portlaoise). He trained abroad, and returned determined to establish a lying-in and teaching hospital to treat Dublin women, rich and poor. His hospital opened in a small premises on South Great George's Street, which it quickly outgrew, so Mosse began campaigning for a larger premises: running lotteries (for which he was arrested), seeking donations, and holding fund-raising events (his fund benefited from the charity premiere of Handel's Messiah). In 1757 his New Lying-in Hospital, as it was called, opened in fine purpose-built premises, popularly known as the Rotunda, on account of its tower and cupola. Sadly, Mosse died two years later, penniless and exhausted. The new hospital, designed by architect Richard Cassells, had a pleasure garden, theatre and concert hall where the fundraising continued, to enable the hospital to treat poor women for free. The Rotunda had an international reputation for its midwifery training and attracted students from Britain, Europe, Russia and North America.

Image: © Rotunda Hospital

Image is present on following page(s): Georgian Dublin

Discoveries and Inventions

Ireland has a rich heritage of invention and discovery, of science and engineering. Mary Mulvihill introduces some of our Irish scientists and tells us of their key discoveries in this article on Science and Technology.

Sorcha

Royal Dublin Society

Photograph 1 of Royal Dublin Society

Library Council

Indicator Booklet - Edge on showing Book Numbers

Indicator Booklet - Edge on showing Book Numbers, Red means Book are in the Library

Property of Kilkenny County Library

Image is present on following page(s): The Kilkenny Library Indicator

John Tyndall FRS (1820-1893)

John Tyndall was the first to explain why the sky is blue. He was also one of the first people to adopt the term physicist rather than the term natural philosopher.

Wiki Commons

Image is present on following page(s): Climate Sensitivity, The Greenhouse Effect, John Tyndall (1820-1893), Tyndall, John, Climate Sensitivity

Cotgreave Library Indicator in Kilkenny

Detail of the surviving Cotgrave Library Indicator in Kilkenny County Library

Kilkenny County Library

Image is present on following page(s): Victorian Library Technology in Kilkenny

Mary Mulvihill

Mary Mulvihill is the author of Ingenious Ireland (2002), the award-winning guide to Ireland's scientific and industrial heritage. A science writer and broadcaster, her many series for RTE radio include The Quantum Leap, and Chopped, Pickled and Stuffed (stories from the Natural History Museum). Over the years, she has written for numerous publications including The Irish Times, edited Technology Ireland magazine for a decade, and also edited Stars, Shells and Bluebells (1997), a collection of biographies of historic Irish women scientists, pioneers and naturalists.

© Mary Mulvihill

Science

Science in Ireland image showing Newgrange.

Courtesy of Carlow County Library

Wm. Hamilton

Wm Hamilton as a young man

Courtesy of Mrs. Hamilton

Hill of Tara

Photograph of the Hill of Tara

Courtesy of Library Council

Indicator Booklets

Indicator Booklets from Kilkenny County Library's Cotgreave Indicator

Property of Kilkenny County Library

Image is present on following page(s): The Kilkenny Library Indicator

Royal Dublin Society

Royal Dublin Society Building and Grounds

Kilkenny County Library

Sir William Rowan-Hamilton

Sir William Rowan Hamilton

Courtesey of Kilkenny County Library

Dr. Richard Kirwan

Dr. Richard Kirwan, 19th century, medical doctor

Courtesy of the Medical library

In 2007, we created the weight of 428,000 double decker buses in waste

The image shows a bin on a street packed full of household and commerical waste.

Richard Kirwan

Image received from Petra Schnabel, RIA, for use on the AskAboutIreland website.

© RIA

Image is present on following page(s): Discoveries and Inventions

1853 Exhibition Medallion

A specially struck medallion, commemorationg the 1853 exhibition which mentions William Dargan as the exhibition founder

Courtesy of Dublin City Public Libraries

Image is present on following page(s): The 1853 International Industrial Exhibition

Royal Dublin Society Buildings at Night

This private society, still on the go, undertook initiatives that in other countries were the responsibility of government. It also helped establish numerous institutions such as the National Botanic Gardens, National Library, Natural History Museum, National College of Art and Design, the veterinary college, and even cancer radiation units and a marine research programme.

Image courtesy of the RDS

Image is present on following page(s): Discoveries and Inventions, Biology

Newgrange

Newgrange, Co. Meath

Copyright Mayo County Library

Tara

hillier

none

Hill of Tara 3D

A computer-generated, 3-dimensional view of the Hill of Tara, made by the Discovery Programme survey. The image reveals archaeological remains and highlights the local terrain, making analysis easy.

© Discovery Programme

Image is present on following page(s): Discoveries and Inventions

Newgrange

Longer description.

all ours.

21st Century Computer

21st Century Computer

Image is present on following page(s): Mathematics

Hill of Tara

Hill of Tara

Copyright Cork City Libraries

Cork gets its name from the marsh on which the city is built.

A plan of Cork in 1545

Copyright Cork City Library

RDS

Photograph of Royal Dublin Society taken in Dublin in 1968

Copyright Mayo County Library

Sir William

long description

none

There are over 600 different flowering plants in the Burren in County Clare.

English Name: Burnet rose, Scotch rose Botanical Name (Latin): Rosa pimpinellifolia (R. spinosissima) Irish Name: Briúlán Order: DICOTYLEDONES Family: ROSACEAE Brief Description: Very spiny, deciduous shrub, usually c. 0.5m tall; flowers solitary, white, cream or pink; hip black with persistent crown of sepals.

Carsten Krieger

William Rowan-Hamilton

William Rowan-Hamilton

Mayo County Library

Ireland’s biodiversity is rich and varied

The Dingle Dolphin named Fungi, has become a firm favourite with locals and tourists. The young bottle-nosed dolphin has been around our shores since 1984.

Copyright Mike Brown

George W. Hemans (1814-1885)

George Willoughby Hemans worked on a number of engineering projects in Ireland, including the Dublin & Drogheda Railway (D&DR) and the Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland (MGWR).

Courtesy of the National Science & Engineering Plaques Committee

Image is present on following page(s): Hemans, George Willoughby