RCSI has unveiled a newly catalogued and digitised archive collection from one of Ireland’s most significant pharmacy chains, Hayes, Conyngham & Robinson, to mark Heritage Week 2025. Founded in 1897, Hayes Conyngham & Robinson began as a family-run business and grew to become one of the largest Irish-owned pharmacy chains in Ireland. Its final shop on Grafton Street, Dublin, closed in 1998. The Hayes, Conyngham & Robinson Pharmaceutical Chemists collection is a rich and valuable resource which provides a window into the evolution of pharmacy and medicine in Ireland from the mid-19th Century up to the late 20th Century.
The archive sheds light on the development and concerns of organisations such as the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, the Dublin and Provincial Retail Drug Association and its successor, the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, as well as institutions like the Ledwich School of
Anatomy and Surgery. It also offers rich insights into Irish social history, featuring personal papers, artifacts, photographs and memorabilia from those who worked in the Hayes, Conyngham & Robinson Medical Halls. Among the materials are unique accounts of events in modern Irish history, including the 1916 Easter Rising.
The archive was generously donated by Michael and Christopher Sheils, great grandsons of company founder Mr Henry Conyngham. It includes company records, formula books, pharmacopoeias, reference texts, ephemera, photographs and personal papers from members of the Robinson family and those who worked for the pharmacy throughout its 100 years in business.
Pictured L to R: Christopher Shiell, Prof Helena Kelly, Head of RCSI School of Pharmacy & Biomolecular Sciences; Prof Tracy Robinson, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, RCSI; Michael Shiell; Prof Cathal Kelly, Vice Chancellor, RCSI; and Kathryn Smyth, Associate Librarian, RCSI. Christopher and Michael Shiell are the donors of the collection.
Geraldine Diamond
Michael Shiell and Prof Tracy Robinson
