St. Brendan's Hospital, Dublin

St. Brendan's Hospital
Health Service Executive

Map of the grounds of St. Brendan's Campus
Geography
Location Grangegorman, North Dublin, Ireland
Organisation
Care system HSE
Hospital type Mental Health Services
Services
Beds 84
History
Founded 1815

St. Brendan's Hospital was a psychiatric facility located in the north Dublin suburb of Grangegorman. It formed part of the HSE mental health services of Dublin North East. Its catchment area is North West Dublin.[1] Since the official opening of the Richmond Lunatic Asylum in 1815 the Grangegorman site has continuously provided institutional facilities for the reception of the mentally ill until the present day.[2] The majority of the buildings historically associated with the hospital have been either demolished, fallen into disrepair or closed down. There are currently five wards still in use in the facility which are all situated in old buildings and which provide eighty-four beds for psychiatric patients. In the 2008 Report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services it was recommended that acute admissions to the secure units 3A and 3B should cease due to their unsuitability and all admissions should be redirected to the new purpose built unit at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, Dublin.[3] This new acute psychiatric unit was finally opened in Connolly Hospital on 29 November 2010 allowing for the commencement of the transfer of patients from St. Brendan's to Blanchardstown. This is part of a process that will see all the old units at St. Brendan's retired as psychiatric facilities.[4] However, this does not signal the end of the use of the site for the provision of mental health services. As part of the Grangegorman Development Plan, where a large portion of the site of the old hospital will be used to develop a new Dublin Institute of Technology campus, new modern psychiatric facilities are to be provided for the HSE mental health services for the region.[5]

St. Brendan's hospital is closed and no longer operates. A new 'state of the art' 'Phoenix care centre' has been developed situated in the Grangegorman area. This opened in March 2013 and comprises 54 bedrooms and ensuites, recreational rooms, clinical rooms, administration areas, seclusion rooms and therapy gardens.

Location

St. Brendan's Hospital is located in the suburb of Grangegorman in a seventy-acre site lying east and west of Grangegorman Road Upper. Most of the site on the eastern side is now disused.

History

St. Brendan's Hospital is the oldest public psychiatric hospital in Ireland.[6] In 1810, the governors of the Dublin House of Industry, which occupied an adjacent site to where the Richmond Lunatic Asylum would be built, together with the physician Andrew Jackson, succeeded in gaining a grant from the government to establish a separate asylum from the House of Industry.[7] It officially opened as the Richmond Lunatic Asylum in 1815, although it had received its first patients from the lunatic wards of the nearby Dublin House of Industry in the previous year. It was named after Charles Lennox who was the Duke of Richmond and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1807-1813). Initially, it was established as a national asylum to receive curable lunatics from throughout the island of Ireland. From 1830, however, it was incorporated into the district asylum system. Thereafter it was renamed the Richmond District Lunatic Asylum and its catchment area was defined as the city and county of Dublin, the counties of Wicklow, Louth, Meath, and the town of Drogheda.[8]

Moral Governors of St. Brendan's Hospital

Medical Superintendents of St. Brendan's Hospital

Association football clubs

Since at least the 1920s various association football teams, including hospital works teams, played in the hospital grounds. These have included Grangegorman F.C. who were FAI Junior Cup finalists in 1928–29 and Leinster Senior Cup finalists in 1946–47. St. Brendan's F.C. were members of the League of Ireland B Division during the 1970s and 1980s. More recently Brendanville F.C., founded in 1963, were members of the Leinster Senior League. All three teams also played in the FAI Cup. [11][12][13] However the football pitches these clubs played on were part of the land that was used to develop the new Dublin Institute of Technology campus.


Footnotes

  1. ↑ Inspector of Mental Health Services, Report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services 2009: St. Brendan's (Dublin, 2010), p. 1.
  2. ↑ Reynolds, Joseph, Grangegorman: Psychiatric Care in Dublin since 1815 (Dublin, 1992), p. 23.
  3. ↑ Inspector of Mental Health Services, Report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services 2008: St. Brendan's (Dublin, 2009), p. 2.
  4. ↑ Official Opening of the Pine Ward at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown.
  5. ↑ Grangegorman Development Agency, Grangegorman GDA Draft Strategic Plan 2010: Project Vision and Context 2 (Dublin, 2010).
  6. ↑ Reynolds, Joseph, Grangegorman: Psychiatric Care in Dublin since 1815 (Dublin, 1992), p. 1.
  7. ↑ O'Shea, Brian, and Falvey, Jane, 'A history of the Richmond Asylum (St. Brendan's Hospital), Dublin' in Hugh Freeman and German E. Berrios (eds), 150 Years of British Psychiatry. Volume II: the Aftermath (London, 1996), p. 408.
  8. ↑ Reynolds, Joseph, Grangegorman: Psychiatric Care in Dublin since 1815 (Dublin, 1992), pp 24, 46.
  9. ↑ O'Shea, Brian and Falvey, Jane, 'A history of the Richmond Asylum (St. Brendan's Hospital), Dublin' in Hugh Freeman and German Berrios (eds), 150 Years of British Psychiatry. Volume II: the Aftermath (London, 1996), pp 408-9.
  10. ↑ O'Shea, Brian & Falvey, Jane, 'A history of the Richmond Asylum (St. Brendan's Hospital), Dublin' in Hugh Freeman and German Berrios (eds), 150 Years of British Psychiatry. Volume II: the Aftermath (London, 1996), p. 411.
  11. ↑ "Ireland - FA of Ireland Cup 1921/22-1993/94". www.rsssf.com. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  12. ↑ "Fallen Flags of the LOI". foot.ie. 24 November 2007. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
  13. ↑ "Ireland Foundation Dates". www.rsssf.com. 6 February 2016. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  14. ↑ From Handbook for Dublin and its Environs including Bray and the Adjacent Parts of the County Wicklow with Map of the City and Street Maps of an Entirely New Plan. From Google Books

References

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