St Mary's Campus, Phoenix Park

One address in the Phoenix Park holds St Mary's Rehabilitation Hospital, two community nursing units in Teach Íosa and Teach Cara, the day hospital at Teach Tyrell, the chronic-disease hub at Cuan Aoibheann, Deerpark Lodge, a lecture hall, a chapel and Phoenix Hall. Some of those are reached by car and some on foot, so the system runs on two tracks: tall totems carrying car pictograms at the vehicle decision points, and a fingerpost with walking figures where the paths split towards the lecture hall and the sensory garden.

Seven destinations, one address, and every name written twice.

Irish first, and no smaller

The HSE is a public body, and the regulations made under the Official Languages Act 2003 are specific: a sign placed by a public body must carry Irish first, as prominent, visible and legible as the English, in letters no smaller, saying the same thing. On the entrance monolith that gives Ospidéal Athshlánaithe N. Mhuire above St Mary's Rehabilitation Hospital, Léachtlann above Lecture Hall, Halla an Fhionn Uisce above Phoenix Hall. The Irish is set in the heavier weight and the English beneath it in the lighter one, so the hierarchy is carried by weight rather than by size. The Act is satisfied and the panel still reads cleanly at a distance.

A protected house in a public park

The main house dates from 1766 to 1770, was built as the Royal Hibernian Military School and is a protected structure standing in the middle of a state-managed historic park. The signs answer that quietly. Faces are charcoal over a timber-finish lower panel, with leaf silhouettes cut through the dark face so the timber reads through from behind; the same leaf is cut into the building plates, which sit on timber backing boards beside the doors. The entrance monolith carries a fine line drawing of the nine-bay house itself, engraved down the panel below the arrow. Deer graze a few metres from it.