Shell shock
Richmond District Lunatic Asylum in Dublin housed the first Irish war hospital for soldiers suffering from shell shock during WWI. Shell shock is a…
Read MoreAuthor: Patricia O Sullivan
Treating the Insane
Looking back at some of the treatments that were used to treat the mentally ill in Ireland can be quite shocking. Usually, there…
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The Diagnosis and Underlying Causes
When a patient was admitted to St Finan’s Hospital, they were given a diagnosis of a mental illness and an underlying cause. This…
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The Growth of the Lunatic Asylum in Ireland
This article will discuss the background of asylum system in Ireland and the establishment of Killarney District Lunatic Asylum. Utilising excerpts from an…
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Lunatics Wandering At Large
In the nineteenth century, Ireland was a country of poverty and food insecurity and respite from the daily struggles of life and the…
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St Finan’s Hospital
The background of the Killarney District Lunatic Asylum runs in parallel with the national setting. Subject to the 1845 Lunacy Act, each district…
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Insight into the Patient Quandary
In this article, there are two objectives. First, an update on the trends of confinement related to social issues such as alcohol consumption…
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Case Stories
These are concise case stories obtained from St Finan’s archival casebooks. There are many stories and some are going to be developed and…
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A Visual Picture of Socio-demographic Patient Profile
I was fortunate to gain access to the archives of St Finan’s Hospital for my Masters research. There are hundreds of archival books…
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