“Asylums” “Ireland’s awkward Institutions”. Grange Gorman or St. Brendan’s.

https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22311230/

RIA Publications Newsletter View this email in your browser  To wrap up Irish Book Week 2023, find out more about the latest publication from the Royal Irish Academy: Asylum: Inside Grangegorman by Brendan Kelly Listen back to Brendan Kelly’s interview with Claire Byrne on RTÉ Radio 1 this week Find out more. Book review: Asylum an insightful look into the good and bad of a place hidden in plain sight – read full review ” One central premise of this insightful book is that the constantly increasing numbers of patients being admitted meant that, no matter how laudable the intentions of staff, the focus always shifted from coping with the needs of individuals to simply keeping these overcrowded institutions running. As Kelly puts it, ‘The societal hunger for simple solutions to complex problems leads to the use of institutions to meet complicated social needs which often have little to do with the original purpose of the establishment.’ ” While this new work is deliberately short […], the clarity of his writing and the superb design by the Royal Irish Academy makes it approachable for any reader. Asylum: Inside Grangegorman by Brendan Kelly In 1814, the Richmond Lunatic Asylum at Grangegorman in Dublin started an extraordinary programme of asylum building across Ireland, aimed at alleviating the suffering of people with mental illness who were homeless, in prison, or confined in appalling circumstances. By the 1950s, Ireland had proportionately more people in ‘mental hospitals’ than any other country in the world.  On a given night, the number of people in Ireland’s psychiatric hospitals was more than double those in all our other institutions put together: prisons, laundries, mother and baby homes, industrial schools, orphanages.

What was the life of a patient in an asylum really like?

Through letters, medical records and doctors’ notes, Brendan Kelly gives us a unique opportunity to look inside Grangegorman and the lives of those who lived and worked there.  Asylum: Inside Grangegorman by Brendan Kelly
Published by Royal Irish Academy, October 2023. 
PB with FR flaps; 208 pages; €18.95, £16.95 
ISBN: 9781911479291 Order your copy now! Coming soon! Copyright © 2023 Royal Irish Academy, All rights reserved.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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