St. Francis Hospice began when the Irish Hospice Foundation approached the Daughters of Charity (of St. Vincent de Paul) in 1988, seeking help to establish a home care service for northern Dublin. Supported by many individuals and organisations, the service developed over following years. The service began with a Home Care initiative from 1989, originally based in a temporary building in the grounds of the
Capuchin Friary on Station Road, Raheny, providing specialist advisory and support services to patients and their families in their own home. This service continues. The Capuchins later donated their friary garden for the building of a permanent Hospice, allowing construction to start in 1993 - delivering an office and meeting space for the Home Care team and a purpose-built Hospice Day Care Centre. The Day Care service commenced that year. St. Anne's In-Patient Unit, a 19-bed facility, opened on a phased basis between 1995 and 1997, allowing patients to be admitted for respite care and symptom control, and when there is a need for specialist care and support in the terminal phase of their illness. In the next stage of development, the adjoining "big house", Walmer House, was purchased, and then further building was completed, leading to the opening in 2002 of a new Hospice Day Care, Bereavement Counselling facility and Centre for Continuing Studies. ==Planned service for Dublin North West==