Royal College of Physicians of Ireland

The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, was founded in 1654 and is a postgraduate medical organisation comprising Members and Fellows. It is a sister institute of the three Royal Colleges of Physicians in the United Kingdom: Edinburgh, Glasgow and London.HistoryThe "Royal" in the title comes from the Royal Charters that were granted in 1667, by King Charles II of England, and in 1692, by King William III and Queen Mary II of England. It was known as the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland until 1890 when, under charter of Queen Victoria, it adopted the present title.The College was founded in 1654 by John Stearne, a professor and registrar of Trinity College, Dublin, for the purpose of regulating the practice of medicine in Ireland. Originally, it was called "The Fraternity of Physicians of Trinity Hall", as its first home was in a building called Trinity Hall, given to the Physicians by Trinity College.The Royal Charter of 1692 made the Physicians independent of Trinity College but meant that they had to leave Trinity Hall. They then had no permanent home until the opening of Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital in 1812, when the College established its headquarters in some rooms in the hospital.In 1860, the College purchased the premises of the Kildare Street Club in Kildare Street. The building was destroyed in a fire in November 1860 and subsequently rebuilt by the College to its own design. It opened in 1864 and has remained the College's home ever since.