asylum

We had a visit to the Waterford District Lunatic Asylum before - ... and there is Dr Ringrose Atkins in the centre (see note)

Atkins was Medical Superintendent. He died in 1898, aged 47 (bjp.rcpsych.org/content/44/185/453)

Red Herring - there was a relative(?) John Ringrose Atkins, born in Dublin (1851-1908) who lived in Australia and worked in the theatre as 'Dan Barry'- adb.anu.edu.au/biography/atkins-john-ringrose-2909 .

hard to read, but he died of a perforated appendix and a kidney stone, after two days of suffering. First had symptoms while "visiting a lady". President of the YMCA and came from a family of doctors.

Apparently you've got a copy of his obituary. sources.nli.ie/Record/PS_UR_003448

Flickr is sometimes amazing! In 2016 via David Mullen The cows have not mooved!

The Enniscorthy Guardian of December 9th 1893 had an account of amateur theatricals performed in "one of the spacious apartments of Enniscorthy Asylum" . The audience included the inmates. The pieces performed were the comedies "Which is Which" and "Orange Blossoms". "The musical selections were performed efficiently by the Asylum Band." At first I wondered if the pieces were performed by the inmates, but the article suggests it was organised by R.M.S., whatever or whoever that was.

Mr French / Lawrence / Eblana was on the railway bridge, seen in this photo from a little further back - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000326204

in May 1900 the Enniscorthy Guardian reported on another bit of Am Dram. This time, "The Shaughraun", performed by attendants of the Asylum. There were 300 in the audience for the first performance, and 400 for the 2nd, but no mention of how many of these were inmates.

The best bit of the Asylum? The floors. That is according to Mr Slevin, engineer, who met the governors to complain about late payment to him and the contractor Mr Fortune. The governors immediately wrote 2 huge cheques (£813 to Mr Fortune and £169 7s 4d to Mr Slevin), and Mr Slevin chipped in with this:

Mr Slevin returned thanks to the governors and mentioned the fact that be had to deal with many asylums, but he never found a better equipped one than the Enniscorthy Asylum. He referred particularly to the magnificent floors which had recently been placed in the asylum. In the English or Scotch Asylums he had never seen better arrangements, and as regards accommodation for the lunatics he thought then were none like it in Ireland. He would recommend he system of flooring adopted in the Enniscorthy Asylum to the governors of similar institutions.

Hmmm - not one I have any personnal memories of :-) The one gent has got himself a warm spot. It is really well decorated with the wood panelling and the frieze and he paintings.

Maybe that is the superintendant at back left. So very posed with only one inmate allowed to clutter the scene :-(

Such a sad and somewhat tragic image!

There was a honking great Lunatic Asylum on John's Hill (OS 25" link) Flipping between the historic 1905 and modern maps at the OSI, it looks as if all the 1905 buildings are still there. This room may still be in there somewhere, and the round widow is distinctive... The basic layout was there in the 1841 6" map, too.

billh35 Yes I agree. I came across this from Hansard HC Deb 30 June 1910 vol 18 cc1090-1 1090 Captain CRAIG asked the Chief Secretary whether his attention had been called to the last report of the resident medical superintendent of Waterford District Lunatic Asylum, dated 13th June, in which he referred to the unusual number of 1091 assistants who had been confined to bed with various ailments; whether he was aware that one of the attendants had stated that, although the hours of duty performed by the attendants were far in excess of other workers, everything pointed to an increase in that direction owing to the number of attendants on the sick list, and to such an extent were the staff overworked that they were deprived of every third Sunday off, which ran their rest up to the sixth Sunday; and whether, in view of the number of cases which had been brought to light of overworking attendants in asylums in Ireland, he would take steps to ensure that their hours were shortened to something approximating the ordinary working day?