Central Mental Hospital DUNDRUM

Taney (Dublin)

An Príomh-Oispidéal Meabhar-Ghalar opened in 1850 as the Central Criminal Lunatic Asylum for Ireland (renamed the Central Mental Hospital in 1960). It was the first secure hospital to be established anywhere in Europe and was designed by the architects Jacob Owen & Frederick Clarendon. 

In the 19th century afflicted personages (then "lunatics" and "idiots") were cast out by their parish to the next parish, workhouse or prison. The site (in the townland of Churchtown Lower, Dundrum) was originally chosen to be soothing to mental health patients. This institution was intentionally not linked to any particular prison service to maintain a distinction between criminality and illness (as part of an ideological initiative that saw the infamous Broadmoor Hospital established in England).

WATCH RTE Archives 1971

In February 2012 it was announced that the hospital would relocate to a new facility to be constructed on the former site of the old St. Ita's Hospital in Portrane. The construction works, are expected to be completed in late 2019.

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RECOMMENDED READING Custody, Care & Criminality: Forensic Psychiatry and Law in 19th Century Ireland.
Brendan Kelly. The History Press Ireland: Dublin. ISBN 978-1-84588-829-9. SB. 284

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