St. Brigid's Hospital

St. Brigid's Hospital (Irish: Ospidéal Naomh Bríd) was a psychiatric hospital in Ballinasloe, County Galway, Ireland.

St. Brigid's Hospital
Health Service Executive
St. Brigid's Hospital
Shown in Ireland
Geography
LocationBallinasloe, County Galway, Ireland
Coordinates53.3293°N 8.2085°W / 53.3293; -8.2085
Organisation
Care systemHSE
TypeSpecialist
Services
Emergency departmentNo
SpecialityPsychiatric Hospital
History
Opened1833
Closed2013

History

The hospital, which was designed by William Murray, opened as the Connacht Asylum in 1833.[1] After a redrawing of the asylum district boundaries in 1850, it was renamed the Ballinasloe District Asylum.[2] New wings were completed in 1871 and 1882.[2] As it expanded conditions became very overcrowded with nearly 1,200 patients by the early 1900s[1] and, having been renamed Ballinasloe Mental Hospital in the late 1920s, it accommodated some 2,000 patients by the 1950s.[3]

The facility became St. Brigid's Hospital in the 1950s. After the introduction of deinstitutionalisation in the late 1980s[4][5] the hospital went into a period of decline and closed in 2013.[6]

References
  1. "'Tales from the big House', the Connacht District Lunatic Asylum in the late nineteenth century". History Ireland. 1 November 2005. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  2. Rogers, Tom; Fibiger, Linda; Lynch, L. G.; Moore, Declan (2006). "Two Glimpses of Nineteenth-Century Institutional Burial Practice in Ireland: A Report on the Excavation of Burials from Manorhamilton Workhouse, Co. Leitrim, and St. Brigid's Hospital, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway". The Journal of Irish Archaeology. 15: 93–104. JSTOR 20650852.
  3. "Ireland's mental hospitals: the last gap in our history of 'coercive confinement'?". Irish Times. 16 June 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  4. "After the Asylum". Irish Times. 13 July 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  5. Cotter, Noelle (2009). "Transfer of Care? A Critical Analysis of Post-Release Psychiatric Care for Prisoners in the Cork Region" (PDF). University College Cork. p. 5. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  6. "St. Brigid's Hospital, Ballinasloe". National Trust for Ireland. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
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