St. Loman's Hospital, Mullingar

St. Loman's Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland. Founded in 1855, it is Mullingar's only psychiatric hospital. The hospital is infamous for the incarceration in the thirty-year period of 1940 to 1970 and the poor living standards, as mentioned in the 2007 Inspector of Mental Health Services report, which HSE has since stated that they have improved for the current residents. As of 2015, the building no longer contains patients but only administration offices.

History

The hospital is a freestanding 41 bay, 3 storeyed psychiatric hospital built and opened in 1855 and extended circa 1895. The hospital is a well-detailed Victorian institutional complex, with Gothic style extensive Tudor Gothic detailing. The structure was built to designs by J. S. Mulvany (1813-1870), possibly the most celebrated architect operating in Ireland at the time. It cost some £35,430 (equivalent to €44,986 in today's money) to build. It was built to accommodate 300 patients and the first patients were transferred from The Richmond Hospital in Dublin, all of them female.^[1]

1946 incarceration

Hanna Greally, 19, was admitted to the hospital circa 1946. She had just returned home from London where she had witnessed the horrors of the London Blitz. Hanna made several escape attempts and pleading letters to relatives to sign her out, but remained incarcerated for 20 years. Bird's Nest Soup, a book written by Hanna and published in the 1970s, captured in the haunting detail of other's lives stripped of human rights. The unloved, social outcasts, the incurably embittered and the dispirited.^[2]

“The patients inside, expectant, waited for the letters and the visits, until finally, one day, they would find themselves rejects, outcasts, and no explanation given. Sometimes a crushed spirit breaks from mental agony and anguish, when she understands, at last, she is captive in a free society.” —Bird's Nest Soup, 1971

During this time, there were more than 20,000 patients confined behind mental hospital walls across Ireland, 0.7% of the general population. Mortality rates were high, with more than 11,000 deaths every decade between the 1920–1960 period. Hanna Greally died in Roscommon in 1987, aged 62.^[3]

Inspector of Mental Health Services report

In 2007, the Inspector of Mental Health Services report created a horrific picture of the appalling conditions which some residents have to endure in ageing psychiatric hospitals around the country. The Inspector called for two of these hospitals, St Loman's in Mullingar and St Joseph's in Limerick, to be closed, urging that St Loman's be closed immediately. The Inspector made comments on St. Loman's conditions.

“Apart from the admission units, the conditions in areas of St Loman's Hospital remained very poor with damp, peeling paint, tiles lifting on floors, poor sanitary facilities, curtains falling down and drab and institutional-style furnishings and decor. A significantly large number of these areas were dirty, including sluice rooms and bathrooms and toilets. In short, the conditions that people with enduring mental illness have to live in permanently in St Loman's Hospital were deplorable....every effort must be made to close the hospital immediately.” —Inspector of Mental Health Services Report, 2007

White powder threat, March 2015

In March 2015, the hospital went under lock down when a package was handed to the administrative staff of the hospital. When opened, mysterious white powder was discovered along with a note saying, "ISIS is going to get you". The chilling message and contents of the package immediately sparked a major alert. Gardaí were called and quickly moved to seal off the main building - which houses only administrative staff - amid concern of a biological or chemical threat. A cordon was put in place and traffic diversions implemented around the hospital, which is located to the north-east of the midlands town. The army disposal unit from Athlone arrived to the building to examine and dispose of the substance. However, it was soon discovered to be a hoax, but the Gardaí were still on high alert.^[4]

References