Visited with @sammydoublewhammy @host and @Cloth Head
A nice old asylum, past it's best in terms of interesting bits left behind but nicely rotten and very photogenic.
We went here after having previously explored Connacht http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/connacht-district-lunatic-asylum-ireland-july-2016.t104601 so this one was a notch or 3 further down the scale of epic but I still enjoyed it.
Closed in 2002 - Our Lady’s first opened its doors in 1868 and was then known as Ennis District Lunatic Asylum. For 134 years it continued to operate on the same site as a mental hospital and indeed until the 1950s very little changed in the manner in which it was run. The hospital was one of the largest public buildings in Clare and was both a large employer and purchaser of goods from local suppliers.It played an important role in the economic life of Ennis, especially in earlier years when jobs were scarce and pensionable positions were highly prized.
The hospital had changed very little from its opening to the 1940s and 1950s but after this change was rapid.Interviews with staff who worked in the hospital in the 1940s are extremely valuable as they are almost describing the hospital form its earliest days.The custodial approach was in practice and the hospital was highly routinised.It was terribly overcrowded with only inches between patient beds and up to 70 beds in a ward.There were no drug therapies available and highly disturbed patients simply had to be restrained. One former charge nurse recalled his impressions of the day room on his first day of work in a disturbed ward as a vision from hell, which frightened him terribly. Another charge nurse recalls in great detail a very similar picture, while both soon became quite used to it.Another nurse recalled the advent of drug therapy describing Largactyl as a wonder drug’, which allowed some previously chronic patients to go home. These were also the days of Electric Convulsive Therapy without anaesthetic, and insulin therapy, both of which methods are described in the interviews.
Male nurses describe the female ward as much tidier and cleaner in appearance than the male side of the hospital, with curtains on the window, but claimed that the male wards were “more relaxed”. The hospital was highly segregated and no males worked in the female wards and vice versa. The project involved interviewing a domestic cleaner who spoke about being the first woman to work in the male hospital. Another retired nurse spoke about how intimidating it was for him as a male member of staff to begin working in the female wards in the 1980s.One nurse who worked in the female side of the hospital in the 1950s before she married, and who returned to nursing in 1970s, described amazing changes that had taken place in the interval in patient care as patients received three and four-course meals and wore their own clothes.
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A nice old asylum, past it's best in terms of interesting bits left behind but nicely rotten and very photogenic.
We went here after having previously explored Connacht http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/connacht-district-lunatic-asylum-ireland-july-2016.t104601 so this one was a notch or 3 further down the scale of epic but I still enjoyed it.
Closed in 2002 - Our Lady’s first opened its doors in 1868 and was then known as Ennis District Lunatic Asylum. For 134 years it continued to operate on the same site as a mental hospital and indeed until the 1950s very little changed in the manner in which it was run. The hospital was one of the largest public buildings in Clare and was both a large employer and purchaser of goods from local suppliers.It played an important role in the economic life of Ennis, especially in earlier years when jobs were scarce and pensionable positions were highly prized.
The hospital had changed very little from its opening to the 1940s and 1950s but after this change was rapid.Interviews with staff who worked in the hospital in the 1940s are extremely valuable as they are almost describing the hospital form its earliest days.The custodial approach was in practice and the hospital was highly routinised.It was terribly overcrowded with only inches between patient beds and up to 70 beds in a ward.There were no drug therapies available and highly disturbed patients simply had to be restrained. One former charge nurse recalled his impressions of the day room on his first day of work in a disturbed ward as a vision from hell, which frightened him terribly. Another charge nurse recalls in great detail a very similar picture, while both soon became quite used to it.Another nurse recalled the advent of drug therapy describing Largactyl as a wonder drug’, which allowed some previously chronic patients to go home. These were also the days of Electric Convulsive Therapy without anaesthetic, and insulin therapy, both of which methods are described in the interviews.
Male nurses describe the female ward as much tidier and cleaner in appearance than the male side of the hospital, with curtains on the window, but claimed that the male wards were “more relaxed”. The hospital was highly segregated and no males worked in the female wards and vice versa. The project involved interviewing a domestic cleaner who spoke about being the first woman to work in the male hospital. Another retired nurse spoke about how intimidating it was for him as a male member of staff to begin working in the female wards in the 1980s.One nurse who worked in the female side of the hospital in the 1950s before she married, and who returned to nursing in 1970s, described amazing changes that had taken place in the interval in patient care as patients received three and four-course meals and wore their own clothes.
