Grangegorman histories by Brendan Kelly

In the early 1900s, Ireland had more mental hospital beds than any other country in the world. Grangegorman District Asylum in Dublin stood firmly at the centre of this vast network of institutions. Founded as the Richmond Asylum in 1810 and ending its life as St Brendan’s Hospital in 2013, Grangegorman epitomised and defined Ireland’s mass institutionalisation of the mentally ill. What happened behind its walls? Who was in there? What was life in the asylum like? This book delves into the hospital’s clinical archives to present the story of Ireland’s forgotten institutions and the people who lived in them: the mentally ill, the intellectually disabled, and those who simply did not fit in. The story of Grangegorman holds answers to key, unresolved questions in Irish institutional history.