[2][3] Obstetrician Michael Neary was found to have performed an excessive number of hysterectomies during Caesarean sections in hospital during the late 1970s.

[4] The Catholic ethos of the Medical Missionaries of Mary has been blamed for some controversial practices in relation to abortion and contraception.

In 1983, after Sheila Hodgers died of cancer days after giving birth, an article in The Irish Times alleged that anti-cancer medication and painkillers were withheld to protect her foetus.

[5] The hospital was the last in Ireland which performed symphysiotomy (widening of the pelvis during childbirth) and did not cease the practice until 1983.

Stage 1 of the works, which involved a new extension, was carried out by P. J. Hegarty & Sons at a cost of €18 million and completed in 2010.