Harriet Wheelock / Sunday 1 February 2015

The Corrigan Window

Sir Dominic John Corrigan died on this day 135 years ago. A significant medic in the mid-nineteenth century Dublin School of Medicine, Corrigan was the first Catholic President of the College of Physicians, serving four terms between 1859 and 1863. During his time as President, Corrigan was a prominent figure in the College’s efforts to secure a permanent home in a prestigious location in Dublin city centre. This objective was achieved when the College bought the premises of the Kildare Street Club in 1860, the cost of which Corrigan subscribed £500. After a fire burned this building to the ground in November of that year, the College commissioned the design and construction of a new building, which opened in July 1864.

A visually-arresting feature in the second grand hall of the College, originally called the Convocation Hall and now the Corrigan Hall, is a stained glass window in the centre of the back wall. The window was donated to the College in 1864 by Corrigan himself, who had commissioned a Mr Barff to design and construct it. At first the window was placed in the centre of the back wall of the grand hall (now the Graves Hall) of the newly-constructed College building. In April 1864 the College expressed “their warmest thanks to him for the additional proof of the kind interest taken in originating and carrying out the erection of the new Hall in a manner worthy of the College”.[1]

Portrait of Sir Dominic Corrigan (RCPI)

In 1874, the building at 6 Kildare Street was extended to include the former racquet court of the Kildare Street Club, now the Corrigan Hall. When alterations were being made to link the existing building with the racquet court, it became necessary to remove the lower panel of the window. This section of the window was placed in the Corrigan Hall. A second donation was then made by Dr Corrigan, who supplied the additional stained glass portraying his family crest to complete the upper part of the window.

Today the Corrigan Window remains in this prominent position in one of the two grand halls in No. 6 Kildare Street, and makes for a great image in College brochures and promotional materials!

Fergus Brady,

Project Archivist

[1] John David Henry Widdess, A history of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 1654-1963 (London, 1963), pp 200-201.