[2] The origins of the hospital lie in a poorhouse initiated when Dublin Corporation paid £300 to acquire the site in 1603.

[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.

[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.

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