Carlow County - Ireland Genealogical Projects (IGP TM) |
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This
article recently appeared in the Nationalist on 15 August 2017 on page
44.
History of St Dymphna and St Dympna's Hospital, Carlow
First, I
am going to look briefly at the story of St Dymphna herself (this
spelling is correct) and a sad story it is.
It is
believed that Dymphna was born in the northeast during the seventh
century. Her father Damon was a pagan king who ruled Oriel, which are
now Louth, Armagh and Monaghan. She was an only child; her mother, a
Christian, was described in annals as a beautiful woman, who died when
Dymphna was just 14, She, herself, was described as the picture of her
mother and this was the forerunner to a strange tale.
Following his wife's death, it is recorded that the king was
inconsolable, that his heart remained beyond comfort. His mood turned
sullen and he was approaching the verge of mental collapse. His
courtiers suggested he marry again and eventually fie agreed, but that
he would only marry a woman who looked like his deceased wife. By now,
Dymphna, who herself had grown up a Christian, had decided to devote
her life to God and she took a vow of chastity.
The search for a woman to marry the king
failed. Then his envoys suggested that his daughter looked so much
like his wife, so why not marry her. At first, he was repulsed by the
idea, but having thought about it agreed. He broached the topic to his
daughter. Appalled, Dymphna replied definitely not. On the advice of
Fr Gerebern, her confessor, she fled home to avoid danger because of
her refusal.
A party
of four set out across the sea: Dymphna, Fr Gerebern, the court jester
and his wife. They reached Antwerp in Belgium and set out looking for
a home. They settled in the little village of Gheel, close to a shrine
dedicated to St Martin of Tours.
Dymphna
opened a hospice for the mentally ill and poor, but her good
intentions were to fall back on her, for when she used her money to
pay for the facility, her father was able to track her down and before
long arrived in Gheel with some of his soldiers. He ordered one
soldier to decapitate Fr Gerebem, which was done.
Her
father tried to convince Dymphna to marry him, but when she refused,
he decapitated her, too. She was just 15 years' old. Her
death took place on 15 May and that date is set as her feast day.
When the
townspeople came across the bloody scene, they collected the remains
of Dymphna and the priest and buried them in a cave.
Later,
the people of Gheel decided to give them a more suitable resting
place. When workmen removed the black earth from the entrance to the
cave, people were astonished to see two most beautiful tombs, whiter
than snow, which were carved from stone. When the coffin of St Dymphna
was opened, there lying on her breast was a red brick with the words
'Here lies the Holy Virgin and Martyr Dymphna’.
Her
remains were placed in a small church - Necessity obliged the erection
of a new church to be built. The
magnificent Church of Saint Dymphna now stands on the site where the
bodies were originally buried. Her remains are contained in a gold
reliquary (container for holding relics). As people were cured there,
word spread from country to country and the number of pilgrims grew
and grew. So did the miracles, as people suffering from nervous,
problems and mental disorders were cured. These pilgrimages continue
to the present day.
Dymphna was canonized in 620. Some
of her remains are also found in the shrine to St Dymphna in
Massillon, Ohio, USA,
Dymphna is the patron saint of the
mentally ill (which includes emotionally disturbed and nervous
disorders) and, by association, psychologists, psychiatrists and
neurologists, as well as being patron saint of victims of incest.
St Dymphna's Special School is
located on Convent Hill in Ballina, Co Mayo and caters for four to
18-year-olds with mild general learning needs.
The remainder of this article is
taken from the archives of St Dympna's Mental Hospital, Carlow. Please
note that dates may overlap, as various pieces will run from start to
finish.
Carlow Lunatic Asylum admitted its
first patient on 7 May 1832. It had been built to accommodate 104
patients at a cost of
£18,474,5.9 (18,474 pounds five shillings
and nine pence). It was built on a site of ten acres, which had been
purchased for
£2,289.0.3, The capital cost of building
asylums was issued by the exchequer and repaid within 14 years through
grand jury presentments.
The day-to-day running costs were
entirely funded by the county cess (this was the equivalent of today's
county councils), the first local authority service, even though they
were not recognised until 1840; the
Local
Government Act was
not introduced until 1898.
From
1821 to 1899, asylums (Carlow was not the first) were run by the lord
lieutenant and bodies he appointed, namely: the board of control,
which was appointed to oversee the erection of the buildings, and the
board of governors, which was appointed to-each asylum and was made up
of the landed gentry, magistrates merchants, traders and the clergy.
This board met monthly and, from 1843, was managed under Privy Council
rules. These rules were also the first step towards placing district
asylums under medical control rather than lay.
Carlow’s
first medical manager was visiting physician Doctor White, thus
becoming the first doctor to hold the post. The first resident medical
superintendent (RSM) was Doctor Michael Patrick Howiett, who assumed
that position in 1866. In 1891, the visiting physician post was
abolished.
The
inspectorate of lunatics was established in 1845; their duty was
visiting asylums and inspecting their condition, duties which, until
then, were carried out by inspectors general of prisons.
The 1898
act removed these powers from the lord lieutenant and inspector of
lunatics, who would no longer have the power to hire or dismiss
officers. These regulations and the financial controls were
transferred to the new county councils.
The
asylums were now run by a committee appointed by the county council
or, where there were two or more, as in Carlow’s case, by a joint
committee.
The
Carlow asylum district was changed twice: the first in 1852, when an
asylum opened in Kilkenny city catering also for the county of
Kilkenny, and the second in 1868, when an asylum was opened in
Enniscorthy to cater for patients from Co Wexford. From then on,
Carlow District Lunatic Asylum catered only for Carlow and Kildare
lunatics.
Following the Local Government Act, 1925, Carlow District
Lunatic Asylum became known as Carlow District Mental Hospital. It
would take its present name St Dympna's in 1958.
In the early years, care was
administered by the asylum's manager Francis Cotton and a visiting
physician Dr Meade Nesbit Stone. Patients were treated with what was
known as 'moral treatment' or 'moral management', rather than by
medical treatment. This treatment operated on kindness and
understanding, which encouraged recreation, religious observance, work
and a good quality diet as a path to recovery. While moral treatment
marked a welcome change in how the mentality ill were treated, it was
hard to operate for the large numbers in asylums.
There were two methods of
admission to asylums. The first was on a medical certificate of
insanity and an affidavit from the next of kin declaring the poverty
of the patient and also entering a bond to remove the patient if
requested to do so. An 1870 addition to Privy Council rules allowed
the admission of paying patients. Carlow governors had been advised of
this as early as 1836 and have made use of it since then.
The other form of admission was
permissible under the Criminal Lunatics (Ireland)
Act 1838
dealing with the admission of dangerous lunatics, which provided for
the transfer from prison to asylum (if accommodation was available) of
a dangerous lunatic or a dangerous idiot, who presented a derangement
of mind and an intention to commit an indictable offence.
This
admission was subject to abuse, but was retained for 3O years before
being abolished.
The
following panel extracted from a report dated 31 December gives an
idea of patient's illnesses as of that date.
It is
further commented that 3O patients are returned as imbecile,
epileptic, and 11 display suicidal tendencies. Patients who are
'probably curable' are returned as 66, an exceedingly favourable
number incurable lunatics are set down at 1O6, idiots at
two and epileptics eight. Of the 2O5 patients, only two are
fee-paying. With regard to occupations, 79 are agriculture, 29 belong
to the serving class, 12 are clerks or shop assistants, six are
soldiers and three are members of the RIC.
As
regards education, 13 are well educated, 33 can read and write well,
42 indifferently, 46 can read only, the remaining 71 patients are
illiterate or their education is unknown.
Marital
status: 4O patients are married, 32 are widowed, 9O are single and the
status of 43 is unknown.
It is
calculated that between 1832 and 1922, 5,517 patients were admitted to
Carlow Mental Hospital. Men made up 55% of this figure.
New
buildings meant that in 1871, the asylum could cater for 178 patients
and in 1896, it was capable of holding 426 patients. Still, in 1911,
it was overcrowded with over 500 patients.
St
Dympna's was taken over by the government in 1971 and is now run by
the Health Service Executive (HSE). The latest published information
has the hospital providing 115 beds, offering both acute and long-term
care, outpatient clinics, day care facilities, addiction counselling
and a community hostel. It is accessible from both the Athy and old
Dublin roads.
You will
also find the district hospital in the grounds and the military museum
now housed in the old animal slaughterhouse, where cattle reared on
the hospital farm were killed for use in the facility.
More of
the archives are available online. I have tried to use as much
relevant history as possible but there are restrictions on the release
of documents, which is only right. These restrictions include no
documents on patients being published within 1OO years of his or her
admission. County managers’ documents are not available
until 50 years after their creation. Records were transferred from the
hospital in 2O14 to the Delaney Collection, which is held in Carlow
College. Source: Nationalist on 15 August 2017 on page 44 |