The hospital was opened to serve the sick and poor in the crowded area of the Liberties in Dublin in 1753.

[1] A dedicated hospital building was later constructed in the Coombe with Anthony Brabazon, 8th Earl of Meath laying the foundation stone on 10 October 1770.

[4][5][6] In the nineteenth century the Meath Hospital achieved worldwide fame as a result of the revolutionary teaching methods and groundbreaking research carried out by Robert Graves and William Stokes, physicians of the hospital.

One example was when during a typhus epidemic Robert Graves introduced the revolutionary idea of giving food during the illness ("he fed fevers" was what Graves requested be inscribed on his tombstone).

[8] The original building was subsequently converted for use as a respite home.