Mission
Our mission at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital is to care for the sick with compassion and professionalism at all times, respect the dignity of human life, and to promote excellence, quality and accountability through all our activities.
Our hospital started as an ambitious idea of Catherine McAuley. Catherine McAuley was born in Dublin in 1778 and went on to establish the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in 1831. Through their work, she and the Sisters recognised the need for a hospital to provide medical care for the sick and poor of Dublin City. The Sisters of Mercy purchased a site on Eccles Street in Dublin and the building of the new hospital started in 1855. The hospital took six years to complete and the ‘Mater Misericordiae Hospital’ was officially opened on 24 September 1861 “…to serve the greatest need in the city, somewhere the sick poor could go without having to know someone or pay money…”.
Today, the Mater Hospital is an innovative, public Level 4 university teaching hospital and continues to provide specialised medical care to the sick in Ireland.