Back in May, as my time in Europe came to a close, my roommate from uni and I decided to take a short sightseeing trip to Ireland, and added a couple of abandoned locations to the list. While my research on this particular asylum turned up little recent info, we figured it was well worth a look. Along the drive to Galway, we took a moment to stretch our legs and walk the grounds of the hospital. As luck would have it, we found a relatively discreet way in, and soon found ourselves within the hospital's x-shaped wings.
Admittedly, I was a bit on edge for much of the visit; perhaps it was due to exhaustion and sleep deprivation, or the occasional sound of running/shuffling from nearby rooms, but we couldn't shake the feeling that we weren't alone. However, this was probably one of my favorite explores to date, made all the more rewarding by not knowing what to expect. The design of the asylum was unlike any other I've visited, and the peeling pastel paint and creeping vegetation made for a beautiful atmosphere. Despite being a bit jumpy, we spent an hour or so walking the halls and taking it all in, cut short only by the setting sun and the remaining drive to the coast.
History, courtesy of History Ireland:
the Connacht District Lunatic Asylum (CDLA, now St Brigid’s Hospital), opened in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, in 1833 and one of the earliest of the Irish district asylums. It was intended for the care of ‘curable lunatics’ and opened in a spirit of optimism with regard to its progressive role in public health. Its history, however, is one of continual struggle: to prevent the admission of unsuitable cases, to secure additional funding and to offer reasonable standards of care under difficult conditions. In common with the majority of other District Asylums, the CDLA was continually overcrowded, housing in November 1900, for example, 1,165 patients in accommodation designed to hold 840. Its evolving role in Irish society throughout the nineteenth century, then, throws some interesting light on public perceptions of the insane, the authority of the medical profession and changing social mores.
When the Ballinasloe asylum was in the process of construction in the early 1830s, there was some concern that its accommodation for 150 patients was a gross overestimation of the number of known lunatics in its catchment area of counties Galway, Roscommon, Sligo, Mayo and Leitrim. Some critics had argued that there were not 150 lunatics in the whole of the country, and that the asylum must inevitably stand half-empty.
In November 1833, as the asylum neared readiness, the board of governors advertised for patients, announcing ‘that the Connacht District Lunatic Asylum at Ballinasloe is prepared for the reception of patients, and that printed forms of admission can be had at the asylum’. The announcement proved unnecessary, as the first rush of patients came not from families who had read the advertisement in the papers but from the region’s workhouses and gaols. The first 21 admissions came en masse from the poorhouse at Castlebar, and the next large group, of 23, from the old gaol at Roscommon. Other workhouse and gaol managers were quick to seize upon this opportunity to rid themselves of long-stay or difficult inmates, and within a mere eighteen months of its opening the asylum was almost full. Of the 146 patients in residence, ‘86 have been admitted from the several gaols of the province who with a few exceptions have been incurable, epileptic or idiotic and are therefore likely to remain in the asylum during life’.
The hospital was closed in 2009, and recent articles indicate potential redevelopment of the property.
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Thanks for looking![/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]
Admittedly, I was a bit on edge for much of the visit; perhaps it was due to exhaustion and sleep deprivation, or the occasional sound of running/shuffling from nearby rooms, but we couldn't shake the feeling that we weren't alone. However, this was probably one of my favorite explores to date, made all the more rewarding by not knowing what to expect. The design of the asylum was unlike any other I've visited, and the peeling pastel paint and creeping vegetation made for a beautiful atmosphere. Despite being a bit jumpy, we spent an hour or so walking the halls and taking it all in, cut short only by the setting sun and the remaining drive to the coast.
History, courtesy of History Ireland:
the Connacht District Lunatic Asylum (CDLA, now St Brigid’s Hospital), opened in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, in 1833 and one of the earliest of the Irish district asylums. It was intended for the care of ‘curable lunatics’ and opened in a spirit of optimism with regard to its progressive role in public health. Its history, however, is one of continual struggle: to prevent the admission of unsuitable cases, to secure additional funding and to offer reasonable standards of care under difficult conditions. In common with the majority of other District Asylums, the CDLA was continually overcrowded, housing in November 1900, for example, 1,165 patients in accommodation designed to hold 840. Its evolving role in Irish society throughout the nineteenth century, then, throws some interesting light on public perceptions of the insane, the authority of the medical profession and changing social mores.
When the Ballinasloe asylum was in the process of construction in the early 1830s, there was some concern that its accommodation for 150 patients was a gross overestimation of the number of known lunatics in its catchment area of counties Galway, Roscommon, Sligo, Mayo and Leitrim. Some critics had argued that there were not 150 lunatics in the whole of the country, and that the asylum must inevitably stand half-empty.
In November 1833, as the asylum neared readiness, the board of governors advertised for patients, announcing ‘that the Connacht District Lunatic Asylum at Ballinasloe is prepared for the reception of patients, and that printed forms of admission can be had at the asylum’. The announcement proved unnecessary, as the first rush of patients came not from families who had read the advertisement in the papers but from the region’s workhouses and gaols. The first 21 admissions came en masse from the poorhouse at Castlebar, and the next large group, of 23, from the old gaol at Roscommon. Other workhouse and gaol managers were quick to seize upon this opportunity to rid themselves of long-stay or difficult inmates, and within a mere eighteen months of its opening the asylum was almost full. Of the 146 patients in residence, ‘86 have been admitted from the several gaols of the province who with a few exceptions have been incurable, epileptic or idiotic and are therefore likely to remain in the asylum during life’.
The hospital was closed in 2009, and recent articles indicate potential redevelopment of the property.
1
2
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2dVxnjq]
3
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2aT1ZSn]
4
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2edDnUu]
5
[url=https://flic.kr/p/25NLaE1]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/LqSifo]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2e18i74]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2aT1VyT]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2edDmUo]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2dVwPaW]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2aT1UM2]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2aT1X22]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2edDom1]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2edDnCh]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/29Mpaij]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2e18tet]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2edDmCG]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2dVwK37]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/QeR29F]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ee9gMw]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/QeRfak]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/27DdN4R]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/NKn2Vy]
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[url=https://flic.kr/p/2cU8r93]
Thanks for looking![/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]
. Easily one of my favorite overseas explores, one I hope to return to.
