Hospital:
Population: 1,200 approx.
Industries: Gleann Áine, La Rossa, Youthreach, Fás Scheme, and the Co-op shop.
Schools: One Primary School and one Secondary School, (new building under construction.)
Facilities: Library, handball alley, tennis courts. The schools have their own facilities.
Hospital is a small town situated on the Mahore River. It is roughly 20 minutes from Limerick City. The Fás Scheme have just completed a new fountain in the town. The unfinished Secondary School will be the largest in Munster when it is fully built.
How Hospital got its Name:
Hospital takes its name from an establishment of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem founded there by Geoffrey de Marisco. It was the second most important house of the Hospitallers in Ireland. In the ruined church of the Hospitallers there are three tombs. Two are de Marisco tombs and the third is of uncertain origin.
The Knight Hospitallers:
This was a great military and religious order. It had its origin in Jerusalem when some Italian merchants got permission to build a hospice for pilgrims known as the Hospice of St. John and arranged for a group of Benedictine monks to take charge of it. In 1118 the former leader, Gerard died and the Hospitallers as they were now known chose Raymond Dupey as Gerald’s successor. Dupey formed a military corp from some of the members. This corp vowed a perpetual crusade against the infidel. Better known today as the Knights of Malta they have sheathed their swords and now devote themselves to works of mercy.
An effigy of a Norman Knight inthe armour of the period , in the corner of the old church in Hospital. It is probably that of Roger Outlawe, Grand Prior from 1315 to 1340.
This report was compiled by E. Morrissey, 5th Class.