Traces of Humanity

The exterior of Our Lady's Hospital can only be described as filthy. Rubbish, litter, discarded toilet rolls are to be seen in profusion around the bases of the building, behind the grey building, behind St. Kevin's and in internal courtyards. *

Milk comes to wards in, we were told, open buckets. This is because the milk is purchased in bulk thereby effecting a saving of about £3,000 than if it were to be bought in cartons. In some wards there is no adequate facility for storing food. In one ward we saw bread being stored in dustbins, most of it stale. *

St. Kevin's, 9, male, 28 patients — there is no activity in the day room. The patients sat around in armchairs waiting for bedtime, which was somewhere between 5.30 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. The washhand basin area was used to store all sorts of rubbish. One window had four broken panes of glass. *

The service provided by the hospital is extremely poor and for the most part appears to provide the worst form of custodial care. The majority of patients are unoccupied and no attempt is made to provide appropriate rehabilitative inputs for them on their wards. *

This hospital is a human warehouse containing hundreds of forgotten souls in conditions which could be described as anti-therapeutic **


		About the Exhibition

		The exterior of Our Lady's Hospital can only be described as filthy. Rubbish, litter, discarded toilet rolls are to be seen in profusion around the bases of the building, behind the grey building, behind St. Kevin's and in internal courtyards. * Milk comes to wards in, we were told, open buckets. This is because the milk is purchased in bulk thereby effecting a saving of about £3,000 than if it were to be bought in cartons. In some wards there is no adequate facility for storing food. In one ward we saw bread being stored in dustbins, most of it stale. * St. Kevin's, 9, male, 28 patients — there is no activity in the day room. The patients sat around in armchairs waiting for bedtime, which was somewhere between 5.30 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. The washhand basin area was used to store all sorts of rubbish. One window had four broken panes of glass. * The service provided by the hospital is extremely poor and for the most part appears to provide the worst form of custodial care. The majority of patients are unoccupied and no attempt is made to provide appropriate rehabilitative inputs for them on their wards. * This hospital is a human warehouse containing hundreds of forgotten souls in conditions which could be described as anti-therapeutic **

	These words, taken from the 1988 report of an Inspector of Mental Hospitals and from a Dáil Debate from 1971, were still ringing in my ears when I first entered the Saint Kevin’s Unit. I was expecting to find a dark place haunted by the memories of the hundreds of human beings who suffered in silence for years without any hope of ever getting out, drugged, mostly left alone, robbed of whatever sanity and human dignity they had left. The damp darkness of the building made me shiver and I found myself not daring to enter the empty rooms, so strong were the lingering traces of suffering inside. My feelings of disquietude and discomfort only grew stronger when I found letters on the floor talking of a new direction called “Caring for People”… I was left to wonder what this could possibly mean in such a forsaken place. Advertisement for sunbeds and notes from the staff about “Happy memories” left me with a taste of bitter irony unexplained. That impression deepened at the sight of the nearby Grey Building, which has in part been converted to luxury flats, now unassumingly called Atkins Hall as if to rid the building of its 200 years of history. Yet, despite the fact that the building has been deserted years ago, left open to virtually anyone, and has been vandalized, traces of humanity linger within its darkness. Drawings, buttons, paintings on the walls… These traces demonstrate a strong, touching will to live, innate to each and everyone of us. The pictures I took are my way to acknowledge the people who suffered all those years in St Kevin’s Unit and whose stories have remained untold for too long.

		* SEANAD DEBATES - Seanad Éireann - Volume 119 - 01 June, 1988 Adjournment Matter. - Our Lady's Hospital, Cork. Senator Mr. B. Ryan quoting the report of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals on the conditions in Our Lady's Hospital in Cork Historical Parliamentary Debates - 23 January 2009 http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/S/0119/S.0119.198806010008.html ** DáIL DEBATES - Dáil Éireann - Volume 253 - 22 April, 1971 Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Our Lady's Hospital, Cork. Historical Parliamentary Debates - 13 February 2009 http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0253/D.0253.197104220005.html