To Heal the Broken Heart and Set the Captives Free

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis

Saturday August 11, 2007 15:42

by Sean Crudden - impero

sean at impero dot iol dot ie

Jenkinstown, Dundalk, Co Louth.

087 9739945

The Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum

Brendan O'Donnell died in the central mental hospital a young man (~ 23) about 10 years ago. Whatever happened him the event set alarm bells ringing in my mind. Is it too late now (or too soon?) to seek a transparent public account of his death and how it came about? He was a triple murderer, physically strong and, as far as I know, suicide was not a factor.

Sean Crudden

Those of us who attended boarding school in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s know what it is like to be withdrawn and separated from the community that formed us and that we grew up in. That gives rise to a feeling of living in a no-man’s-land which stays under the skin right into adult life - even into old age.

Reading the article "Corridors of the mind" by Carl O’Brien in today’s Irish Times the impression that comes across to me is that the Central Mental Hospital is in some ways like a bad boarding school from the 1950’s. Seclusion, monitoring of letters, supervision of phone conversations, early bedtime, a regimented timetable for the day, boredom.

Of course the 1970’s saw the introduction of community schools and the gradual decline of boarding schools. It is a moot point how far the community dimension in education has been realized in succeeding decades. A certain element of choice in the selection of post primary school has remained for children and their parents and this, with the availability of cheap buses, may have militated against a truly community spirit in the second level sector.

Whether the idea of community in education is real or bogus it has been adopted unreservedly as a philosophy in mental health provision. Everyone seems to want mental hospitals closed down and mental health care put in the hands of community mental health teams. Sometimes, it appears to me, that these proposals are merely cosmetic rhetoric attempting to put an acceptable face on modern psychiatry the business end of which is the syringe and the needle even though we hear a lot of (empty) talk about cognitive psychology, psychotherapy, counseling.

To my mind the needles are as sharp in Ardee as they are in Dundrum. So is there any need for the "central" mental hospital in Dundrum? Why not return inmates of Dundrum to their local areas to the local mental hospital or, even, to the local community? The treatment available locally is just as sophisticated as that available centrally. Local provision might be more appropriate in the sense that the patient/prisoner/client would be nearer their own locality and, thus, closer to their own local community full participation in which is the stated objective of mainstream mental health provision in Ireland.

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Comments (2 of 2)

Life v systematic controls

by Keith Harris - newsmedianews.com

Sat Aug 11, 2007 17:53

"Is it too late now (or too soon?) to seek a transparent public account of his death and how it came about? He was a triple murderer, physically strong and, as far as I know, suicide was not a factor."

There should be no question of the available possibility to hold an open public inquiry into the events associated with the death of someone, where death can be shown to have occurred in uncertain or suspicious circumstances.

What should be questionable is the motive behind those who would seek to thwart or block such inquiries.

God bless all patients who were left to die in Irish Mental Institutions - forgotten by those outside

by Jacqueline Fallon

Sat Oct 26, 2013 20:07

Rest in peace, Brendan O'Donnell (RIP), God only knows, if he was given the care he needed in time, his life would have been very different. His mother loved him and he loved his mother, he never accepted the hospital's version of his mother's death - he was extremely angry at the authorities, justifiably so, God rest his soul, I hope he is at peace now.

God bless all other patients who were put into mental institutions in Ireland and left to die in them, some like the ones in St Brigid's Mental Hospital Ballinasloe, don't even have a marked grave, and some had no relatives that cared enough to attend their funeral.

I know many patients were put in as teenagers (some from the Magdalene laundries) and some were never visited by any one (I met and spoke to enough of them to know, how it was).

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To Heal the Broken Heart and Set the Captives Free

Comments (2 of 2)