The hospital, which was designed by William Murphy, opened as the Maryborough Asylum in 1833.[1] It was extended in 1865 and again in 1898.[1] It became Portlaoise Mental Hospital in the 1920s and went on to become St. Fintan's Hospital in the 1950s.[1] In the 1950s and 1960s the hospital's own football team, St. Fintan's Hospital GAA, had some success in local competitions.[2] After the introduction of deinstitutionalisation in the late 1980s the hospital went into a period of decline;[3][4] however the hospital remained open and a contract was signed for major refurbishment works at the hospital in October 2018.[5]
On 15 April 2020, it was reported that, of the 25 people in their care, 8 patients had died of Covid-19 during the Easter weekend in the Maryborough Centre for Psychiatry of Old Age at St Fintan's Hospital.[6]
