Patrick O’Daly (1888 1957) was a soldier and counter-intelligence officer who helped to further the republican cause in Ireland. Originally trained as a carpenter, O’Daly quickly became involved in the Irish republican political movement, swearing into the Irish Republican Brotherhood at 19 years old. Following his participation in the Easter Rising, O’Daly was sent to the Richmond hospital for treatment and promptly arrested in his bed. He was then extradited to a Welsh prison, before being released under the terms of the general amnesty agreement in December of the same year. O’Daly would continue his participation in the Irish Republican Brotherhood, commanding the Guard’s 1st Company through Dublin to accept the hand-over of Beggars Bush barracks from British troops on February 1st, 1922. O’Daly resigned his commission with the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1924, returning to life as a civilian.

Read more about Patrick O’Daly’s life in our Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Grangegorman Lives is a series of biographies of people whose lives influenced or were influenced by Grangegorman. The biographies are all sourced from Ireland’s Dictionary of Irish Biography: Ireland’s national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition is freely available at www.dib.ie.

Grangegorman Histories is a public history programme of research and shared discovery of the Grangegorman site and surrounding communities. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with our activities.

Image credits https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/bloodbath-to-whitewash-the-civil-war-crimes-of-paddy-o-daly-1.3358645 Brophy family collection, South Dublin County Council Libraries

Richard Carmichael (1779 1849) was a distinguished surgeon, teacher and medical reformer. Having graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in 1795, he quickly grew an international reputation for his knowledge of venereal diseases. Carmichael began his term at the Richmond Hospital in 1816, and would continue his involvement with the hospital for decades to come. Ten years after his appointment as surgeon, in 1826, Carmichael founded the Richmond Hospital School of Anatomy, Medicine and Surgery. Although Carmichael resigned from the Richmond Hospital in 1846 so that two new surgeons could join the hospital, the following year he assisted John MacDonnell in the first operation in Ireland to be performed under general anaesthesia. After his death in 1849, the Richmond Hospital School of Anatomy, Medicine and Surgery was renamed the Carmichael School in his honour.

Read more about Richard Carmichael’s life in our Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Grangegorman Lives is a series of biographies of people whose lives influenced or were influenced by Grangegorman. The biographies are all sourced from Ireland’s Dictionary of Irish Biography: Ireland’s national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition is freely available at www.dib.ie.

Grangegorman Histories is a public history programme of research and shared discovery of the Grangegorman site and surrounding communities. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with our activities.

Image Credit https://rcsiheritage.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-ghost-of-carmichael.html, photo provided by Gary McAbe

Dr Joseph Lalor was Resident Medical Superintendent at the Richmond Asylum at Grangegorman from 1857 until shortly before his death in 1886. When Lalor arrived at the Richmond, the hospital was in a state of decline. He was determined to improve asylum life, focusing particularly on education, which he believed was the fundamental basis of ‘moral treatment’. During his years at the Richmond, the school was expanded considerably and professional teachers were employed to cover a broad range of subjects. He was very proud of the school and continued to promote education as a means to treat mental illness.

Read more about Dr Joseph Lalor’s life in our Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Grangegorman Lives is a series of biographies of people whose lives influenced or were influenced by Grangegorman. The biographies are all sourced from Ireland’s Dictionary of Irish Biography: Ireland’s national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition is freely available at www.dib.ie. Grangegorman Histories commissioned Professor Brendan Kelly to write Dr Lalor’s biography.

Grangegorman Histories is a public history programme of research and shared discovery of the Grangegorman site and surrounding communities. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with our activities.

Image credit: Dr Lalor in 1861, when he was President of The Association of Medical Officers of Asylums and Hospitals for the Insane. Courtesy the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Jennie Wyse Power (1858-1941) was an Irish Nationalist and women’s rights activist. She was active in the Ladies’ Land League and was a strong supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell. She was a co-founder of Inghinidhe na hÉireann and Cumann na mBan; a founder of the Irish Women’s Franchise League; as well as a founder and, from 1911, vice president of Sinn Féin. In 1920 she was elected Governor of the Richmond District Lunatic Asylum. In 1922 she was appointed as a Cumann na nGaedheal senator. She became an independent senator in 1925 and a Fianna Fáil senator in 1934.

Read more about Jennie Wyse Power’s life in our Dictionary of Irish Biography.

Grangegorman Lives is a series of biographies of people whose lives influenced or were influenced by Grangegorman. The biographies are all sourced from Ireland’s Dictionary of Irish Biography: Ireland’s national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition is freely available at www.dib.ie.

Grangegorman Histories is a public history programme of research and shared discovery of the Grangegorman site and surrounding communities. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with our activities.

Image credit: Jennie Wyse Power in 1920, the year she was elected Governor of the Richmond District Lunatic Asylum. Irish Life, 30 July 1920; public domain.

Dr Browne’s tenure as Minister for Health (1948-1951) saw him become a national figure, particularly in his energetic application of available funding to tackle the scourge of TB in Ireland but also his proposal of what became known as the ‘Mother and Child Scheme’. Modelled on the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), the scheme proposed the provision of free medical care to all mothers and children. Medical, religious and, eventually, political opposition to the scheme concluded with his resignation. However, Browne continued to remain influential in Irish politics and a voice for urgent social change until the early 1980s. He worked for a brief time at St Brendan’s Hospital, Grangegorman in the 1960s.

Read more about the life and work of Dr Noel Browne

Grangegorman Lives is a series of biographies of people whose lives influenced or were influenced by Grangegorman. The biographies are all sourced from Ireland’s Dictionary of Irish Biography: Ireland’s national biographical dictionary. Devised, researched, written and edited under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, its online edition is freely available at www.dib.ie

Image credit: © Robert Ballagh, IVARO Dublin, 2022