Decaying But Not Forgotten Institutionalized Solitude
Situated not far from the rather sleepy seaside town of Millisle in Co. Down, a place seemingly so normal at first glance, a grand yet empty white building one of exquisite architecture known as "Woburn House" built in the 1800s owned by John Gilmore Dunbar, next to that on the left a handful of around 27 mundane residential properties. What's so special, I hear you ask? To most people, this site on the surface would seem of no consequence no intrigue no mystery. However, dear reader I can inform you that in this case, the reality is much different as you learn what lay beyond the pines, the towering barbed wire that once kept in the "violent and disturbed youth" subdued and subjected too much hardship while subsequently training a generation of regulated authoritarians and the effect on locals who still haven't forgotten the echoes of ominous sirens sounded when a detainee had absconded from the Facility.
A History of Abuse Escapes Reoffences and Politics
The facility was named HM Borstal Millisle and ran between 1950 and 1980. During this time there were multiple allegations of sexual, emotional, physical, and sectarian abuse from staff and other residents with fights being described as a daily occurrence. It closed as a detention center on 7 October 2003 but has ever since been the subject of much worry and debate, as to the future of the site. With prison population growth and an estate-funded strategy that is prepared to address the population growth and the associated overcrowding issue. When the borstal closed, the site was taken over by NIPS (Northern Ireland Prison Service. The site used to train prison guards and also had capabilities to train dogs for work in prisons eventually the facility would close as a prison officer training school in 2016. Since then the site has been subject to investigations by (HIA) or the Historical Institutional Abuse committee. During the course of its life, multiple public inquiries over the years were held as local residents maintained their objections to the school due to the nature of the types of offenders being held at Lisnevin ranging from not going to school to paramilitary activity.
The Haunting of Woburn House
If you are partial to believing in the mysteries of the unknown and the things that go bump in the night, there have been several folklore stories of a butler who murdered a maid he had gotten pregnant by pushing her off the rocks and into the depths of the deep blue then after hanging himself in one of the rooms in Woburn. It's said that she roams the site and her ghostly figure has been seen by locals clutching her stomach and gazing longingly out into the bay for the day she might be at rest. Nonetheless, you may take that one with a pinch of salt I hear they're all Witch fearers in those parts.
A Not so happy conclusion
I can't help but feel sad as most of these adolescents were merely a product of the times and only further hardened and desensitized by the system that was designed to rehabilitate and educate them. To quote Queen's University Belfast, remarked that "they came in as criminals with low self-esteem and went out as criminals with high self-esteem" reoffence rate being as high as 98%. As I wandered a free man around the cells and looming corridors I could feel an inherently palpable sense of the horrors and immense unhappiness that must have unfolded in this prison, almost like it had been soaked into the walls, and existed as a perpetual cloak of its very being that enveloped me in every twist and turn, this is the only urban exploration that I have encountered to date that's left me feeling simply uncomfortable, this feeling was only further solidified when looking into the history of Lisnevin. I remember being taken by the amount of artwork scattered around in cells and classrooms really hit home that these weren't hardened criminals but children at some of the most vital developmental stages of early life and these paintings all be it, childlike or cartoonish, where the final remnants of humanity existentialism and human creation left in this decaying morbid statue of justice. For this is the reason and many like it, that it's absolutely vital we see these places document and preserve them.
Would I recommend seeing Lisnevin? My answer is and always will be of course regardless of the response that it solicits from me as it's up to you to go out and experience it for yourself ultimately drawing your own very personal conclusion! This hobby is a gift that keeps on giving and one I will always have a deep affinity with as when looking for answers for a better future sometimes all we have is our past.
This is the first of hopefully many reports! Go easy always happy to hear constructive criticism!
Situated not far from the rather sleepy seaside town of Millisle in Co. Down, a place seemingly so normal at first glance, a grand yet empty white building one of exquisite architecture known as "Woburn House" built in the 1800s owned by John Gilmore Dunbar, next to that on the left a handful of around 27 mundane residential properties. What's so special, I hear you ask? To most people, this site on the surface would seem of no consequence no intrigue no mystery. However, dear reader I can inform you that in this case, the reality is much different as you learn what lay beyond the pines, the towering barbed wire that once kept in the "violent and disturbed youth" subdued and subjected too much hardship while subsequently training a generation of regulated authoritarians and the effect on locals who still haven't forgotten the echoes of ominous sirens sounded when a detainee had absconded from the Facility.
A History of Abuse Escapes Reoffences and Politics
The facility was named HM Borstal Millisle and ran between 1950 and 1980. During this time there were multiple allegations of sexual, emotional, physical, and sectarian abuse from staff and other residents with fights being described as a daily occurrence. It closed as a detention center on 7 October 2003 but has ever since been the subject of much worry and debate, as to the future of the site. With prison population growth and an estate-funded strategy that is prepared to address the population growth and the associated overcrowding issue. When the borstal closed, the site was taken over by NIPS (Northern Ireland Prison Service. The site used to train prison guards and also had capabilities to train dogs for work in prisons eventually the facility would close as a prison officer training school in 2016. Since then the site has been subject to investigations by (HIA) or the Historical Institutional Abuse committee. During the course of its life, multiple public inquiries over the years were held as local residents maintained their objections to the school due to the nature of the types of offenders being held at Lisnevin ranging from not going to school to paramilitary activity.
The Haunting of Woburn House
If you are partial to believing in the mysteries of the unknown and the things that go bump in the night, there have been several folklore stories of a butler who murdered a maid he had gotten pregnant by pushing her off the rocks and into the depths of the deep blue then after hanging himself in one of the rooms in Woburn. It's said that she roams the site and her ghostly figure has been seen by locals clutching her stomach and gazing longingly out into the bay for the day she might be at rest. Nonetheless, you may take that one with a pinch of salt I hear they're all Witch fearers in those parts.
A Not so happy conclusion
I can't help but feel sad as most of these adolescents were merely a product of the times and only further hardened and desensitized by the system that was designed to rehabilitate and educate them. To quote Queen's University Belfast, remarked that "they came in as criminals with low self-esteem and went out as criminals with high self-esteem" reoffence rate being as high as 98%. As I wandered a free man around the cells and looming corridors I could feel an inherently palpable sense of the horrors and immense unhappiness that must have unfolded in this prison, almost like it had been soaked into the walls, and existed as a perpetual cloak of its very being that enveloped me in every twist and turn, this is the only urban exploration that I have encountered to date that's left me feeling simply uncomfortable, this feeling was only further solidified when looking into the history of Lisnevin. I remember being taken by the amount of artwork scattered around in cells and classrooms really hit home that these weren't hardened criminals but children at some of the most vital developmental stages of early life and these paintings all be it, childlike or cartoonish, where the final remnants of humanity existentialism and human creation left in this decaying morbid statue of justice. For this is the reason and many like it, that it's absolutely vital we see these places document and preserve them.
Would I recommend seeing Lisnevin? My answer is and always will be of course regardless of the response that it solicits from me as it's up to you to go out and experience it for yourself ultimately drawing your own very personal conclusion! This hobby is a gift that keeps on giving and one I will always have a deep affinity with as when looking for answers for a better future sometimes all we have is our past.
This is the first of hopefully many reports! Go easy always happy to hear constructive criticism!
