World Within Walls project: Inside St. Davnet's Event

This event was run as part of Heritage Week and was funded by the HSE as part of the World Within Walls project. It was delivered by Stair: An Irish Public History Company and was supported by the Monaghan County Heritage Office.

The World within Walls project aims to bring to life the memories and history of St. Davnet’s former psychiatric hospital in Monaghan town. This institution played a major role in the town, the community and the lives of many living in the area and as such is of huge historical importance and interest. The Inside St. Davnet’s event aimed to make these memories and history real through providing a typical living experience of the institution at a point in time – 1920s.

We were delighted with the turn out the at ‘Inside St. Davnet’s’ event this weekend. The 1927 recreation of the patients’ menu was fully booked out in advance while almost 200 people turned out to take part in the guided tour. Our History Hub was busy for the day with people coming in to learn more about the hospital and also to work with our artists to create paper flowers in memory of the patients who passed through the asylum.

The 1920s meal commenced at 1pm and guests were escorted by our ‘nursing staff’ to either the male or female side of the dining room.  This was done in order to reflect the gender segregation, a striking feature of asylum life. Not only did the male and female patients eat apart but they received differing portion sizes; male patients getting larger potions than the women. Guests at the meal were also given a small extract from a case history – these were constructed from archival research on the site and used the language and phrasing of the epoch although all identifying features were altered to protect the identity of the patients. The case history included people who found themselves suffering from TB, others who were under observation for dangerous behaviour with others on the way to recovery and doing well.

Medical historian Dr. Anne Mac Lellan, the lead researcher on the World Within Walls project, gave a talk on what life would have been like in 1927 and read some extracts from the minute books and the inspector’s report for that year. “At that time St. Davnet’s was known as Cavan and Monaghan District Mental Hospital. According to the report the patients seemed clean and in good health although  overcrowding was becoming a real problem and the mental hospital was oversubscribed in both male and female wards”.

After the meal finished architecture historian Dr. Niamh Nic Ghabhann began her tour of the complex examining the layout and architecture of the site, exploring how these impacted on life at the mental hospital.  It was interesting to learn how St. Davnet’s was based on a pavilion model which aimed to move away from the more prison like radial layout that was used in earlier asylums. The original intention of Monaghan District Asylum (which was renamed as Monaghan Mental Hospital in 1924) was to provide accommodation and care for patients; balancing care with the need for control. As time progressed and overcrowding became an issue the buildings couldn’t function in the way in which they were intended and personal space was a luxury that was not afforded to many patients.

Those in attendance heard how the complex changed and developed over the years, from its construction in 1869, right up to the modern community services. It is clear from looking around the site today that huge changes have taken place. Some buildings lie empty while many have been taken over by outpatient facilities and other public services. In the last 50 years the approach to treatment of mental health has changed so dramatically that the institutional care no longer dominates. St. Davnet’s Hospital and staff were at the forefront of the move towards community care. Developments at Monaghan such as the token economy aimed to provide long term patients which the skills to be able to return to the community, such developments paved the way for the closure of its wards.

The St. Davne’ts complex is now more open to the local people, it is not uncommon to see people from the town in the ground walking their dogs enjoying the beauty and serenity of the campus. This would have been unthinkable in the 1920s when the walls were strong and the gates locked.

Twenty Years A-Growing: An International Conference on the History of Irish Childhood from the Medieval to the Modern Age

This conference on the History of Irish Childhood will take place  at St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin, 9-10 June 2014.

Dr. Anne MacLellan, Director of Stair will be giving a paper on The Penny Test: Tuberculin Testing and Paediatric Practice in Ireland, 1900-1960:

The historiography of tuberculosis in Ireland has paid considerably more attention to the adult form of the disease than to childhood forms of tuberculosis. In adults the disease primarily affected the lungs; in children, tuberculosis commonly infected other parts of the body including bones and joints, the abdomen and the membranes surrounding the brain as well as being disseminated throughout the body in millet-seed-sized nodules in a form of the disease known as ‘miliary’ tuberculosis. In 1922, the year the independent Irish state was founded, the deaths of 611 children under the age of 15 years were attributed to tuberculosis.

Diagnosis was not always straightforward: this paper will discuss the use and neglect of tuberculin testing for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in Irish children. It will address the consequences of the relative neglect of this test by the Irish medical profession in the first half of the twentieth century. Children who were wrongly diagnosed as tubercular had to endure prolonged periods of bedrest, often in institutional settings, while children whose tuberculosis went undiagnosed were denied rest and treatment.

The increased focus on tuberculosis in children rendered paediatricians and their work visible. This paper will argue that the validity provided by addressing the needs of tubercular children contributed significantly to the development of paediatrics as a separate clinical specialism in Ireland. In particular, the paediatricians Robert Collis and Dorothy Price were active in highlighting the problem of childhood tuberculosis and in promoting the use of the tuberculin test. They were also founding members of the Irish Paediatric Club, the forerunner of the Irish Paediatric Association. Price’s chairmanship of the Consultative Council on Tuberculosis and the National BCG Committee ensured paediatrics and childhood tuberculosis were visible in Ireland at national level.

FOR MORE INFO SEE: http://irishchildhood.wordpress.com/ 

Ireland in the medieval world, AD400–1000 reviewed in the Irish Times

Edel Breathnach's recent publication Ireland in the medieval world, AD400-1000: Landscape, kingship and religion has been reviewed in the Irish Times this week:

The foundations for this splendid book have been laid down over many years of research and the publication by the author of numerous papers that prepared the way for this substantial statement. Edel Bhreathnach combines historical, archaeological and environmental evidence with insights from anthropology, cognitive science and critical theory to give the reader a fresh portrait of the landscapes of Ireland. It is particularly effective in marrying the large amount of new archaeological evidence for settlement with history, placelore, law, literature and genealogy....

For full article click HERE

World Within Walls Community Day

World Within Walls Community Day ran at the Monaghan County Museum last Saturday. This day was the launch of the community outreach strands of the World Within Walls project which is funded by the Health Service Executive. We were delighted with the turn out.

World within Walls is a project which aims to remember the histories of St. Davnet’s former psychiatric hospital in Monaghan town. The project is funded by the HSE and is being delivered by Stair: An Irish Public History under the guidance of the HSE steering committee. The committee is comprised of former senior staff, representatives from the local historical society, mental health practitioners and representation from the National Archives of Ireland.

Talks were given by members of the Stair team about the various aspects of the project. Dr. Anne Mac Lellan’s talk on her research so far at St. Davnet’s was particularly well received by the crowd attending. Anne told of how the patients were separated by gender and the different roles they were given, the women mostly worked in the laundry and sewed, whereas the men often worked on the farmland. As well as being given work to do the patients were provided with amusements of varying kinds from Christy Mistrals in 1872 to the cinema and trips to Blackrock in the 1900s.

Anne also touched on the strikes which took place at the asylum most notably the 1919 strike which was lead by Peadar O’Donnell. It is said  he declared the asylum in Monaghan town a ‘Soviet’ and raised the Red Flag.

There were lots of questions from the audience but also, as the team had hoped there was a lot of information sharing. There is a great wealth of knowledge in the community about St. Davnet’s and we are delighted that so many people have signed up to become involved in the oral history project.

The oral history project will be an opportunity to tap into the human stories that exist in the community. It is important to capture this unwritten history before it fades away. It will also give an alternative perspective on the story of St. Davnet’s as many of the records housed in the archives are clinical in nature and do not go far enough to capture the lived experiences of the staff and patients.

The craft actives on the day were also very well received. Many people young and old turned their hand to some glass painting and our garden of beautiful unique flowers has begun to bloom. There are 850 flowering plants in Ireland which was the average number of patients housed at St. Davnet’s at anyone time. If you know a group that would like to get involved in making flowers for the project we would love to hear from you. We would love to reach our goal of having 850 flowers to display at the 2015 exhibition on the history of St. Davnet’s.

If you couldn't make the day and have information or a story you would like to share please do get in touch with the team through stdavnets.www@hse.ie. You can also loan objects or images for inclusion in the 2015 exhibition by contacting Monaghan County Museum.

Dorothy Stopford Price: Rebel Doctor by Anne Mac Lellan

Arguably the most significant figure in Ireland’s fight against TB, this sensitive and compelling biography tells the fascinating story of Dorothy Stopford Price. Unjustly forgotten, Price made heroic efforts to rid Ireland of tuberculosis and was responsible for the introduction of the BCG vaccine to Ireland. MacLellan recounts a remarkable life, offering a fascinating insight into Price’s Anglo-Irish background, her startling involvement in the struggle for Irish independence and her brilliant and controversial medical career in the newly-independent state.

Read more here: http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/dr-dorothy-price-the-rebel-doctor-written-out-of-our-history-265331.html

Buy your copy here:
http://irishacademicpress.ie/product/dorothy-stopford-price-rebel-doctor/

Pop-up Malaria Museum

Malaria Museum

Let’s Make Malaria History

The stars must have aligned just right when Marco Herbst met Andrew Lewis and Graham Fry  of the Tropical Medical Bureau. With Marco’s collection of malaria artefacts looking for a good home, and TMB’s wonderful top-floor space, it was too good of a coincidence to pass up. Vanessa Breen, with wide-ranging experience from her career in film and television, brand communication, and event organization, came on board to head up a team of creatives who will make the museum a truly unique experience, and Vincent Kenny, of Volunteer Missionary Movement lent his own experience have curated a similar project in the Royal College of Surgeons in the 80’s, the stage was set.

While the pop-up museum will coincide with World Malaria Day, on April 25^th, making Dublin part of a Global conversation about malaria, the Malaria Museum website will remain a permanent virtual space to bring together the different voices from around the world that are working to end malaria.

The Pop-up Malaria Museum, on the top floor of TMB’s Grafton Street headquarters, will take visitors into another world, far from the grey skies of Dublin. The story of malaria is a fascinating one; how far it once spread throughout the world, the mystery behind the disease, once thought to be caused by the bad air around swamps, and how that mystery was unravelled. The malaria museum will combine scientific information with a unique, off-beat visual style, to educate and entertain visitors in the life cycle of the parasite, the history and medications used to combat it, and the exciting future, with ground-breaking innovations promising a malaria vaccine that could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the very near future. The museum will aim to entertain, to educate, and, above all, to engage visitors and get them interested in the actions they can take to help in the worldwide fight against this disease.

Work by artist Fiona Byrne will form part of the exhibition.
Fiona is also a project manager for Stair: An Irish Public History Company

Malaria still kills hundreds of thousands each year, and though those numbers are dropping, there is much to be done. The Malaria Museum is a not-for profit organization, whose ongoing mission is to make malaria history. Working with corporate sponsors, and highlighting their vital work, we will curate the online space, growing it into a virtual community where ideas can be generated, shared, and refined. As we continue to expand the collection of artefacts, the pop-up museum will provide an ephemeral physical space to engage ever more people, 

and get them talking about malaria, and how

 we can come together to save lives.

Ancora Imoaro: I am Still Learning by Noel White and Anne Mac Lellan

The AMLS was founded in 1974 and this year will celebrate it's 40th anniversary. Ancora Imoaro: I am Still Learning  is a History of Medical Laboratory Science by Noel White and Anne Mac Lellan. It will be launched on the 29th of April.