Royal Hospital Kilmainham

The Royal Hospital Kilmainham (Irish: Ospidéal Ríochta Chill Mhaighneann) in Kilmainham, Dublin, is a 17th-century former hospital and retirement home which is now mainly used to house the Irish Museum of Modern Art and as a concert and events venue.

It is notable as being the first large secular building in Ireland as well as being the first large classical building in Ireland. It remains one of the few 17th-century buildings in Dublin that are still extant.

A priory, founded in 1174 by Strongbow, existed on the site until the Crown closed it down in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. It was the main centre of the Knights Hospitaller in Ireland and formed part of the Manor of Kilmainham.

The hospital was built as a home for retired soldiers of the Irish Army by Sir William Robinson, Surveyor General for James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, between 1679 and 1687 on what was then a portion of the Phoenix Park.

Colonel John Jeffreys of Brecon, an old Welsh soldier who had served the Crown loyally during the English Civil War, was appointed the first Master, at a salary of £300 per annum. The hospital got off to a bad start financially: from a petition presented by Jeffreys to King James II in 1686, it seems that most of the original sources of funding had dried up.

The building was inspired by Les Invalides in Paris which also has a formal facade and a large enclosed courtyard. Along with Les Invalides, it served as the model for the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, begun the next year under the guidance of Christopher Wren.

The Richmond Tower at the end of the formal avenue leading to the Royal Hospital was designed by Francis Johnston. This gateway originally stood beside the river Liffey at Bloody Bridge (now Rory O'More Bridge), but had to be moved after the arrival of the railway in 1844 increased traffic congestion. He had placed his personal coat of arms above the arch, concealed by a piece of wood painted to match the stone, his idea being that his arms would be revealed to future generations after the wood became rotten. However, his little trick was uncovered when the gateway was taken down for removal. The coat of arms at present on the gateway is that of the Royal Hospital.

The Royal Hospital Kilmainham graveyards, including Bully's Acre, are 400 metres to the west. A cross-shaft in the former cemetery may be the remains of a boundary cross associated with a ninth-century monastery located at this site.