St Patrick's Mental Health Services Swift’s Dublin: A Walking Tour

This walking tour will explore the streets and stories of 18th-century Dublin through the life and legacy of the founder of St Patrick’s University Hospital, celebrated satirist and author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift.

Led by the Archivist at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, you’ll learn about Swift’s deep connections to the city; from his time as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral to his advocacy for the poor, and his lasting impact on Irish literature and society.

The tour will conclude with light refreshments at St Patrick’s University Hospital, founded by Swift in 1746. Now known as St Patrick’s Mental Health Services, the organisation is driven by the same vision, energy and determination first demonstrated by Dean Swift, who, on his death in 1745, bequeathed £12,000 to establish not only the first psychiatric hospital in Ireland, but one of the very first in the world.