Our Ladys Mental Hospital, Cork

[annie1mod]

Does anyone have any info on this hospital?
I have found a debate about it from the 1980s with talks of it being closed down, does anyone know what has happened to it and, if it closed where were patients transferred to.

Thanks, Annette.

[Maellen]

I believe this hospital was previously referred to as the Cork District Lunatic Asylum. The name changed in the 1940s. The hospital is said to have closed in 1992. The premises are to be made into apartments or condominiums. There is a psychiatric hospital, St. Stephen's, in Glanmire, Cork.

[annie1mod]

Thanks very much, thats great info.

[Sean O Callaghan]

I know the building very well indeed and have visited it on many occasions (not as a patient, I hasten to add!).  It is an extremely long building...it was said that it was a mile or so in length and it is simply huge!  It reminds me of that poem written, I think by Swift about the donation of a mental hospital in Dublin

He gave what little wealth he had
To build a house for fools and mad;
And showed, by one satiric touch,
No nation wanted it so much.

Anyway- it is a beautiful building, probably now given over to apartments etc, although I am not entirely sure.  Certainly it has not been used as a mental hospital for quite some time.  It was beautiful on the outside, but very grim on the inside and a frightening place to visit at times.  It can be clearly viewed in all its glory from several vantage places in Cork.

[annie1mod]

HI, Caellachain,

What area of cork is the building in and do you have any idea about what might have happened to patients when the hospital was closed down? Thanks all your help, and with the description and poem it realy puts me in the picture.

Kind regards

Annette

[Sean O Callaghan]

The building is generally referred to as being on the Lee Road, heading Westward out of the City.  In fact, in Cork, the euphemism to belong  'up the Lee Road' means that someone is unstable.  The building looks down on the River Lee and is in a very beautiful location.

I'm not sure what happened to the patients.  I expect they would have been set to smaller institutions, but if you wrote to the Southern Health Board, they might be able to give more info.

[Sean O Callaghan]

Now, I am no expert at attaching photographs, but hopefully I will manage to attach several (not too great!) images of the former hospital.  It is now a series of apartments and I have discovered that its name is now 'Atkins Hall'.

[Sean O Callaghan]

More photos:

[Sean O Callaghan]

You can see from one of the top image just above quite how long the building is.