St. Brendan's Hospital, Dublin Explained

St. Brendan's Hospital
Org/Group:Health Service Executive
Location:Grangegorman
Region:North Dublin
Country:Ireland
Healthcare:HSE
Type:Specialist
Speciality:Psychiatric hospital
Beds:54
Founded:1815
Map Type:Ireland Central Dublin
Coordinates:53.3571°N -6.2852°W

St. Brendan's Hospital (Irish: Ospidéal Naomh Breandán) was a psychiatric facility located in the north Dublin suburb of Grangegorman. It formed part of the mental health services of Dublin North East with its catchment area being North West Dublin.[1] It is now the site of a modern mental health facility known as the "Phoenix Care Centre". Since the official opening of the Richmond Lunatic Asylum in 1815 the Grangegorman site has continuously provided institutional facilities for the reception of the mentally ill until the present day.[2] As such the Phoenix Care Centre represents the continuation of the oldest public psychiatric facility in Ireland.[3]

History

In 1810, the governors of the Dublin House of Industry, together with the physician Andrew Jackson, succeeded in gaining a grant from the government to establish a separate asylum from the House of Industry.[4] It was built on a site adjacent to the House of Industry and officially opened as the Richmond Lunatic Asylum in 1815, although it had received its first patients from the lunatic wards of the House of Industry in the previous year. It was named after Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Initially, it was established as a national asylum to receive curable lunatics from throughout the island of Ireland. The facility joined the state system as a "district asylum", as defined in the Lunacy (Ireland) Act 1821, in 1830.[5] Thereafter it was renamed the Richmond District Lunatic Asylum and its catchment area was defined as the city and county of Dublin, the counties of Wicklow, Louth, Meath, and the town of Drogheda.[6]

In the latter years of the First World War, a facility known as the Richmond War Hospital was established in the grounds of the hospital.[7] The War Office closed the war hospital in winter 1919.[8] The main facility became the Grangegorman Mental Hospital in 1925[9] and St. Brendan's Hospital in 1958.[10]

After the introduction of deinstitutionalisation in the late 1980s the hospital went into a period of decline.[11] [12] In the 2008 Report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services it was recommended that acute admissions to the secure units 3A and 3B should cease due to their unsuitability and all admissions should be redirected to the new purpose-built unit at Connolly Hospital.[13] In June 2010, the Mental Health Commission instructed the hospital to stop the admission of acute patients on account of the "entirely unacceptable and inhumane conditions".[14] After many of the patients had been transferred to Connolly Hospital, the older facilities at St Brendan's Hospital were retired in November 2010.[15]

As part of the Grangegorman Development Plan, where a large portion of the site of the old hospital will be used to develop the new Technological University Dublin campus, new modern psychiatric facilities were developed.[16] A new state-of-the-art "Phoenix Care Centre", comprising 54 bedrooms and ensuites, recreational rooms, clinical rooms, administration areas, seclusion rooms and therapy gardens, opened in March 2013.[17]

Medical superintendents

Medical superintendents included:

Association football clubs

Since at least the 1920s various association football teams, including hospital works teams, played in the hospital grounds. These have included Grangegorman F.C. who were FAI Junior Cup finalists in 1928–29 and Leinster Senior Cup finalists in 1946–47. St. Brendan's F.C. were members of the League of Ireland B Division during the 1970s and 1980s. More recently Brendanville F.C., founded in 1963, were members of the Leinster Senior League. All three teams also played in the FAI Cup.[23] [24] [25]

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Inspector of Mental Health Services, Report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services 2009: St. Brendan's (Dublin, 2010), p. 1.
  2. Reynolds, Joseph, Grangegorman: Psychiatric Care in Dublin since 1815 (Dublin, 1992), p. 23.
  3. Reynolds, Joseph, Grangegorman: Psychiatric Care in Dublin since 1815 (Dublin, 1992), p. 1.
  4. O'Shea, Brian, and Falvey, Jane, 'A history of the Richmond Asylum (St. Brendan's Hospital), Dublin' in Hugh Freeman and German E. Berrios (eds), 150 Years of British Psychiatry. Volume II: the Aftermath (London, 1996), p. 408.
  5. Web site: Kindred Lines: Lunatic asylum records. 1 January 2017. History Ireland. 28 May 2019.
  6. Reynolds, Joseph, Grangegorman: Psychiatric Care in Dublin since 1815 (Dublin, 1992), pp 24, 46.
  7. Brendan D . Kelly. 19 February 2015. Shell shock in Ireland: The Richmond War Hospital, Dublin (1916–19). History of Psychiatry. 26. 1. 50–63. 10.1177/0957154X14554378. 25698685. 41753493.
  8. Durnin . D. . 2019. The Impact of the First World War on Irish Hospitals, 1918–1925. In: The Irish Medical Profession and the First World War. Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1007/978-3-030-17959-5_6 . 166920516 .
  9. Web site: Institutional reform in mental healthcare in Ireland: the establishment of the Ardee Mental Hospital, 1933, in its historical context. Lisa . Butterly. 127. National University of Ireland. 9 May 2019.
  10. Book: Kelly, Brendan. Hearing Voices: The History of Psychiatry in Ireland . Irish Academic Press . 2016. 978-1788550864.
  11. News: After the Asylum. 13 July 2013. Irish Times. 29 May 2019.
  12. Web site: Transfer of Care? A Critical Analysis of Post-Release Psychiatric Care for Prisoners in the Cork Region. 5. Noelle . Cotter. University College Cork. 1. 2009. 29 May 2019.
  13. Inspector of Mental Health Services, Report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services 2008: St. Brendan's (Dublin, 2009), p. 2.
  14. Web site: 'Inhumane' conditions in psychiatric hospitals. 16 June 2010. RTE. 12 May 2019.
  15. http://hse.ie/eng/services/newscentre/2010archive/nov2010/Officialopeningofthepineward.html Official Opening of the Pine Ward at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown
  16. Grangegorman Development Agency, Grangegorman GDA Draft Strategic Plan 2010: Project Vision and Context 2 (Dublin, 2010).
  17. News: The missing link to mental health services. 26 February 2013. Irish Times. 9 May 2019.
  18. T.K.McKeogh "Dr Joseph Lalor (1811–1886): A Credit to Ireland" in Old Kilkenny Review Kilkenny Archaeological Society 1996 no.48, p. 16
  19. Book: Finnane, Mark. Insanity and the insane in post-famine Ireland. 1981. Croom Helm. London. 978-0-7099-0402-1. 219–20.
  20. Web site: Notes and news. The Journal of Mental Science. 1923. 397. 9 May 2019.
  21. The District of Grangegorman. Dublin Historical Record. 1 December 1944. 7. 1. 1–15. 30083896. Moylan. Thos. King.
  22. O'Shea, Brian & Falvey, Jane, 'A history of the Richmond Asylum (St. Brendan's Hospital), Dublin' in Hugh Freeman and German Berrios (eds), 150 Years of British Psychiatry. Volume II: the Aftermath (London, 1996), p. 411.
  23. Web site: Ireland - FA of Ireland Cup 1921/22-1993/94. RSSSF. 25 March 2015.
  24. Web site: Fallen Flags of the LOI. foot.ie. 24 May 2016. 24 November 2007.
  25. Web site: Ireland Foundation Dates . 6 February 2016. RSSSF. 6 February 2016.

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