Big overhaul of historic feature at Laois hospital to cost nearly €80,000

Extensive essential repair work is being carried out on the landmark clock tower of the historic St Fintan's Hospital in Portlaoise part of a larger energy upgrade on the Dublin Road campus, according to the HSE.

The HSE's Dublin Midlands Group provided an update to the Leinster Express / Laois Live on the work being done and the cost involved in repairing capola clock and bell tower, which dates back to the 1830s.

The HSE says St Fintan’s Hospital is one of several protected structures on the grounds located opposite Portlaoise Prison. It says that as protected structures, owners have a strict legal duty to prevent endangerment, decay, or damage to the structure’s interior, exterior, and curtilage. They must maintain the building, ensure necessary repairs, and obtain planning permission for works that materially affect its character.

The HSE outlined what it had discovered needs repair, and it is doing so in line with its responsibilities as the owner of a building listed as a protected structure by Laois County Council.

"During investigation and exploratory works involved in preparing the statutory approvals and later tender documents for an energy upgrade project, it came to light that some essential repair works were necessary to the cupola clock tower and its inner workings.

"The cupola is of limestone construction with a copper roof and sits above the main roof of the building. This cupola houses a historically significant bell; gravity weight mechanism and weights associated with the four clock faces that are located on the 4 sides of the clock tower. There is some minor structural works required to the bell supports as part of the works. As a result, a scaffold has been erected to facilitate these works," said the HSE.

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See the photo the health authority's summary of the key works being carried out. 

• Patching of copperwork roof
• Repointing some small areas of stonework as required
• Clean and repair of clock facings
• Clean of pigeon guano internally from space.
• Fit new timber louvers to 4 sides with bird and insect mesh

The HSE said the cost of the works associated with the cupola is "currently valued" at approximately €78,000, excluding vat and is being carried by Kelbuild Contractors.

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It added that work is are expected to be completed by March 31 2026.

The hospital complex has been the subject of extensive modernisation recent years with new agencies such as Tusla operating there. The HSE recently obtained planning permission to build a Primary Car Centre at the facility.

St Fintan's Hospital originally opened on May 14, 1833, as the Maryborough Lunatic Asylum. The former psychiatric institution was designed by William Murray and renamed in the 1950s as St. Fintan's Hospital.

Mr Murray was retained as architect to the Commissioners for Erecting and Establishing District Lunatic Asylums in Ireland in the early 1800s. Over a 15 period, he was involved in the erection of nine asylums. All were built, with minor variations, to the formula devised with Francis Johnston for the asylum at Armagh. Mr Murray was also architect to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham in Dublin, which is now the Irish Museum of Modern Art.