Ballinasloe “Asylum.”

byhookorbycrook

I drove past this building today . The history of such places is a reminder of dark parts of Irish life . The building itself would seem to have architectural merit , but it looks like it’s been abandoned and is slowly decaying

What do the local people think about its future ?

zell12

It is a protected structure

byhookorbycrook

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121404378#Comment_121404378

I had looked at the same sit, as it happens. I wonder if the unofficial plan may be to let it get into such a state of decay that it will be bulldozed!

zell12

There were plans. Many people would rather it disappeared completely.

Re-Imagining of St. Brigid’s under the Patronage of the then Minister Naughton was held in Summer 2018 with representatives of all the state agencies. A report was commissioned, agreed and circulated.

The group proposed a full redevelopment of the existing premises including a new Retirement Village, a Wellness Retreat Hotel, Housing for Dementia and Alzheimer patients, a hostel for visitors, and other amenities including a museum on the history of the complex, a café, pharmacy, a small shop, Chapel, Green Space for outdoor exercise and a Leisure Complex. The project which was provisionally due to be finished by 2028...

Galwayguy35

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058323805/ballinasloe-asylum

What do you mean dark parts of Irish life?

Freddiestar

Check out some of the urban explorer sites on FB for a closer look inside

TheRiverman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121413814#Comment_121413814

When people with Mental Health problems were put into those horrendous buildings and abandoned by their families and by society.

Packrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121413874#Comment_121413874

As opposed to left in society with no care like we do now? Their innocent kids or neighbours murders obviously don't matter to you.

Galwayguy35

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121413874#Comment_121413874

Well 3 members of my extended family were in there at various times and received excellent treatment so not everyone was just dumped in it and forgotten about.

TheRiverman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121413895#Comment_121413895

I think you are focusing on the extremes of Mental Health with that comment. There were many people in those institutions who would be fine in society today due to medication and counselling. I know, I used to have a family relation who worked as a carer in a mental " asylum" back in those dark days and many of the people he cared for would be out in society if they were alive today.

Packrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121413954#Comment_121413954

I also know, - I did construction work in a functioning psychiatric unit about 12 years ago, and I saw nobody there who didn't need to be there. It was eye-opening.

Like Galwayguy, I had a relative who was accident brain damaged and unpredictable spend time in a different one during the 70s to 90s, and he needed to be there and was well cared for.

I also had a close relative and her baby murdered by someone who should have been in one.

There's a lot of sh1t talked about the past by people who know close to fxxk all about it.

Mrs OBumble

The biggest difference between 40 years ago and 20 years ago lies in the availability and understanding of psycho-active drugs.

Before they were widely available, lots of people were institutionalised because there were no other realistic options.

1641

In 1951 the total population of Ballinasloe town was 5,596. The resident population of St Brigid's was 2,078.The Irish asylums made up one part of a system of mass incarceration, giving Ireland the second highest rate of mass incarceration in the world after Soviet Russia.

Of course there were many people in asylums with serious psychiatric illness. But many other had mild or temporary illnesses. And many others were homeless, or an inconvenience, or embarrassment to their families. They were "put away" by their families or the local organs of administration in society. Formal psychiatric assessment and diagnosis was not required (or was cursory and administrative). They generally became institutionalized and lived and died in hospital. The development of new psychotropic medications over the past 60 years or so is just one of the reasons why the numbers institutionalized has changed.

We have too few psychiatric places now, and too little mental health support. But that is a different story.

afkasurfjunkie

It was a huge source of employment in the town. My parents and many of my relatives and their friends worked there. It was practically self sufficient in its time. There was a garden where they grew their own food. A work shop where furniture would be made and repaired, bakery, own church, an hall for putting on entertainment, a bus to bring patients on day trips etc, and this would have been in the 80s.

It’s a pity the building has been left to rot. I think turning part of it into a museum telling the story of mental health throughout the ages would be very interesting. Yes there were people who shouldn’t have been put in there but many were also well looked after. Also living locally, nobody around here ever refers to it as an an asylum but as St. Brigids.