History in the Making
Bloomfield House was originally built in 1790 for attorney general William Saurin. It changed hands in 1802 when Dr Robert Emmet bought it after his youngest son, an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader was convicted of treason and executed for his failed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. Bloomfield found itself a new owner again in 1809 when it was sold to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), who extended the building and ran it as a hospital for almost two centuries.
