Books for old soldiers? Creating a library at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 1711–15

Abstract This article examines the creation in the early 1710s of a library at the Dublin military hospital for old soldiers known as the Royal Hospital Kilmainham (RHK). It shows that the library was created after an appeal by the master of the RHK, describes the books in the collection, and examines the gifts from a significant pool of seventy-one high-status men and women across Ireland from which the collection was constructed. It considers why the library was created at this time and its use during the two centuries that would elapse before the final closure of the hospital in the wake of Irish independence. This article is the first ever examination of the physical books and makes significant use of the minute books of the board of the RHK and its sub-committees, manuscript records that historians have tended to assume were lost or destroyed after the evacuation of British troops from the twenty-six counties.