MEDICINE
That medicine was widely practiced in Ireland both
before and after the coming of the Anglo-Normans is
clear from numerous references in the annals and
other sources. The annals also regularly recorded seri-
ous epidemic, as well as endemic, diseases, many of
which are hard to identify today. But it is probable
that leprosy, smallpox, and typhus were major
scourges. Bubonic plague raged in Ireland during the
sixth and seventh centuries. The destruction of crops
and animals, usually the result of bad weather or mil-
itary conflict, inevitably produced famine, which in
turn generated an array of diseases. The late thirteenth
and early fourteenth centuries were especially disas-
trous in this regard, even before the reappearance of
the Black Death in the late fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries.
Physicians practiced in Ireland from an early period,
as is clear from references in the sagas. In the Táin Bó
Cuailnge, for example, King Conchobor’s personal
doctor demonstrated remarkable skill in the use of
herbs to heal even the most grievously wounded war-
rior. Practitioners obviously enjoyed high status and
widespread recognition: the Annals of the Four Mas-
ters, under the year 860, recorded the death of the
“most learned physician of Ireland.” But, despite their
status, doctors were subject to close regulation. The
laws made a number of references to the duties, enti-
tlements, and qualifications of physicians. Fees for
medical treatment were specified in some detail, and
doctors whose treatments failed could be fined. What
was entailed in medical education is unclear, but as
medicine was largely a hereditary profession then pre-
sumably skills were passed on from one generation to
the next by means of an apprenticeship system.
After the twelfth century it is possible to identity
certain families of hereditary physicians who served
ruling dynasties over many generations. By the fif-
teenth century, and probably earlier, some of these
families were compiling leech books or medical man-
uals. Such works often described disorders and recom-
mended remedies and, in doing so, demonstrated great
practical knowledge. But, at the same time, they also
showed considerable familiarity with English and
European medical theories of the time and earlier. Irish
translations of extracts from Bernard de Gordon’s
Lilium Medicinae(1303) and John Gaddesden’s Rosa
Anglica(1314) are to be found among the medical
manuscripts held by the libraries of the Royal Irish
Academy and Trinity College, Dublin. The medical
manuscripts in the King’s Inns Library contain extracts
from classical authorities such as Hippocrates and
Galen, and from Constantinus Africanus, who was
instrumental in transmitting knowledge of Arabic
medicine to Europe after the eleventh century. Irish
medicine was clearly not practiced in isolation; Irish
physicians were familiar with European traditions and
developments. There is some scattered evidence of
members of Irish medical families studying and work-
ing in England and Europe during the fifteenth, six-
teenth, and seventeenth centuries, while the greatest
Scottish medical family of the early modern period
had emigrated from Ireland in the fourteenth century.
In both the Irish and Anglo-Norman parts of the
country, medicine was by no means solely the preserve
of males. The Brehon laws referred to banliaig(female
physicians), who are usually presumed by scholars to
have been midwives, although it is likely that their
expertise was more extensive. The guilds of barbers
and surgeons found in towns such as Dublin admitted
women, who were often relatives of male members. It
is certain then that Irish women practiced widely
within their communities as healers, herbalists, nurses,
and midwives, although evidence for their activities is
scanty.
There is certainly evidence, however, of women
working in hospitals. While figures are far from reli-
able, it has been estimated that there were some 211
hospitals in late medieval Ireland run by religious
orders. Possibly around half of these were facilities
intended to segregate lepers, whose breath was con-
sidered to be infectious. The rest were mainly alm-
shouses, hospices for poor travelers, and pilgrims and
institutions caring for the sick poor. Place names, such
as Spiddal in County Meath, Spital in County Cork,
Hospital in County Limerick, Cloonalour in County
Antrim, and Leopardstown and Palmerstown in
County Dublin, all suggest the existence of some sort
of hospital during the medieval period—the latter three
catering specifically for lepers.
Often attached to religious houses and staffed by
brothers and nuns, these institutions generally offered
food and warmth and, more particularly, religious con-
solation, rather than medical treatment; although the
excavation during the 1920s and 1930s of trephined
skulls at monastic sites in Cos Down and Meath testified
to complex surgery being conducted, at least occasion-
ally, and more recent excavations in urban sites have
produced further evidence of cranial and other surgery.
St. Stephen was especially associated with lepers,
and from the twelfth century Dublin boasted a St.
Stephen’s hospital for lepers, as did Cork from the
thirteenth century. Perhaps the largest hospital in late
medieval Ireland was also found in Dublin: the priory
and hospital of St. John the Baptist without the New
Gate, known as Palmer’s Hospital, established during
the 1180s and operated by the Fratres Cruciferi(or
Crutched Friars). In 1334, the hospital had 155 beds,
although when the priory was dissolved in the 1530s
only fifty beds remained. Yet, like a number of medieval
hospitals, St. John’s appears to have continued to