More than 150 years of public health in Ireland

1856

The Sanitary Association of Dublin is established, the predecessor society of the Society.

1869

The Sanitary Association of Dublin is dissolved as a Dublin Corporation committee is established.

1889

The Society for the Study of Public Medicine is established, later called the Public Health Section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland. Dr J W Moore, President, gives an inaugural address on the position of the Public Health Section in relation to medicine.

1919

The Society asks for a place on the Royal Commission on the reorganisation of the Public Health Service and accepts a compromise on a Royal Commission for all of medicine. The Commission never happens, a missed opportunity that delays the Society taking a more proactive role for a generation. The first Irish Department of Health is established this year.

1937

Dr R H St J Horne, Medical Inspector at the Department of Local Government and Public Health, reads a paper showing the value of statistics in public health. The Society has fewer members than in the 1880s because of the scarcity of public health doctors.

1970

The Society’s first Annual Report, by Prof. C O’Sullivan of University College Dublin, notes the need for a specialist structure.

1986

The Public Health Specialist Training Scheme is established under the Faculty of Public Health Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI).

1988

The Irish Faculty of Public Health Medicine is established within the RCPI.

1992

The Society adopts the name Irish Society of Public Health Medicine.

2007

The Society receives a grant from the Health Service Executive towards a meeting with the RCPI and the Faculty of Public Health Medicine to discuss the future of the profession.

Today

A voluntary Council elected each year, five regional branches, and an Annual Scientific Meeting that brings members together every autumn.