1761: The South Charitable Infirmary opened in Cork city.
1771-1772: Incorporated and established by Act of Parliament (The eleventh and twelfth years of George III).
1811: Dr John Woodroffe, Surgeon to the South Infirmary, founded the first School of Medicine in Cork. It was a school of Physic and S urgery recognised by the School of Surgeons, London. There lectures were given on Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology and Theory and Practice of Physics and Clinical Surgery, diseases of the eyes and operations connected with them, medicine and diseases of children and Practical and Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
1838 : During the course of this year the Sisters obtained permission to visit the Poor House and the South Infirmary where they they ministered to the patients there.
1861: The County Infirmary at Mallow was moved to Cork had merged with the South Infirmary as “The South Charitable Infirmary & County Hospital”.
1863: The new General Hospital for the County and City of Cork was officially opened by the Mayor, J S Maguire, Esquire, M.P. The Mayor referred to the manner in which the South Infirmary had been supported by donations and taxation’s and to the small sum contributed to it by the County, although getting great value from it.
1871 By this date the Sisters of Mercy were nursing in the South Infirmary.
14th June1901: Sr. M. Albeus Fogarty was appointed Matron. On the following Friday the Matron elect had to present herself before the house committee .
28th June1901: Sr. M. Albeus went from the convent to take charge of the Souh Infirmary as Matron. She was accompanied by Sr. M. Philomena. Two other Sisters also joined them from the Workhouse on the same occasion, Srs. M. Liguori and Martha.
21st October1901: The foundation stone of the South Infirmary convent was laid
6June 1902: Feast of the Sacred Heart: The Sisters in the South Infirmary took up residence of their new convent which had been built for them through the generosity of the bishop, Dr. O’Callaghan . He blessed the convent on the same occasion, having previously planned to build it. Countess Murphy kindly supplied the furniture for the new convent.
Countess Murphy also got permission for a site on the grounds of the hospital for the erection of a chapel which was built and adorned at her expense.
February:1912: Countess Murphy died at her residence Clifton in Cork city at about 6pm. (date obscured) She was a very pious and charitable lady, a benefactress of the South Infirmary and very kind to our Sisters and the poor in general. RIP.
April 24th 1917 Sr.Abeus received an invitation from the War Office,London to the Investiture at Buckingham Palace to receive the Royal Red Cross from the King, in recognition of the care given to wounded soldiers in the hospital during World War 1. She did not accept the invitation.
Dec. 24th1922: Mother M. Albeus and Sr. M. Raymond received the A.R.R.C. decoration from His Royal Highness King George of England in recognition of the services rendered to the soldiers at the South Infirmary and Mercy Hospital, after the post European War – they were respectively Matrons of those Hospitals. Both has got an invitation, first class expenses to be paid – to come to London and received the decoration personally from the King, which they declined. As a result the decoration was brought to cork to them.
August 22nd 1952: Mother M. Albeus, died after a brief illness. Miss Ellen Linehan (Secretary to the South Charitable Infirmary) sent the following vote of sympathy which was proposed by Venble. Archdeacon Hingston (Church of Ireland) and seconded by Mr. S.D. Barrett, B.L. at a special meeting of the Committee of Management held on Tuesday 2nd September 1952. ‘We the members of the Committee of Management beg to offer Rev. Mother and the other members of the Community our deepest sympathy in their sad bereavement. The late Mother M. Albeus was long and honourably connected with the South Infirmary and took the keenest interest in its welfare and management and had always the interests spiritual and temporal, of the patients very much at heart’.
1988 Amalgamation of South Infirmary and Victoria Hospital. The South Infirmary-Victoria University Hospital Ltd. came into existence on 1st January 1988 as a result of the amalgamation of the South Charitable Infirmary and the Victoria Hospital. Prior to that date both Hospitals operated as separate entities from their inception dates – the South Charitable Infirmary and County Hospitals from 1761 and the Victoria Hospital from 1874.
13 March 1993: The Hospital Convent closed . In 1904, the Sisters of Mercy took up residence in the newly built convent in the grounds of the South Infirmary, and today, after many years of development and change in the hospital and in religious life the convent will become administration offices and the Sisters will move to different convents. Just one Sister of Mercy still works in the South Infirmary – Sr. Marcella Nagle who works in Pastoral Care and lives in St. Columba’s Convent in Bishopstown.
1995 : The vacated convent building was refurbished and used as Administration offices.
2005 : Hospital received University recognition and was re-named South Infirmary-Victoria University Hospital
Southern Province 