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.

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.