*St Ita's Hospital, Portrane, formerly Portrane Asylum is a long stay facility for those with intellectual disabilities and those with long term mental illnesses. It is currently being scaled back in operations with planned mixed use.
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development. The cultural context of St Ita's in Irish society, and the sheer size of the hospital (the largest public contract ever undertaken in Ireland up to 1890) have made St Ita's Hospital a notable feat of both 19th century civil and social engineering in Ireland.
Portrane Asylum was built at the end of the nineteenth century on what was then an isolated peninsula on the north coast of Dublin. At one time it comprised nearly 500 acres (2.0 km2) running its own farm and providing its own produce.
Towards the latter end of the 19th century new attitudes were emerging regarding the care of the mentally ill. The different categories of mental illness were being identified and their separate needs recognised.
The cellular "prison-like" institutions where the mentally ill could be kept under restraint were no longer appropriate or desirable. The asylum could no longer be a place of indefinite internment. Facilities for recreation, occupation and exercise were seen as important elements in the design of institutional buildings for the mentally ill.
The development of the new asylum at Portrane took cognisance of these attitudes although the isolated site chosen for the hospital still spoke of the fear of the mentally ill and the desire to separate them from "normal"
society.
However, this was a generally accepted policy in both Great Britain and Ireland in the 19th century.
The design for St. Ita's was the subject of a limited architectural competition which was won by George Ashlin. Although his design was very advanced in its concept at that time, his scheme was sanctioned by the Board of Control and accepted by the Board of Governors of the Richmond Lunatic Asylum in 1895.
The 'Irish Builder' in its issue of April 15, 1895, records an argument which subsequently erupted within the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, regarding the choice of the winning scheme. Ashlin's design had
exceeded the proposed building budget and he had been allowed to revise his scheme to reduce the cost. The eminent architects Thomas Drew, Albert E. Murray and W. Kaye Parry were not happy with the outcome.
St Ita's Hospital was the largest single building contract ever undertaken in Ireland. The original estimated cost was £200,000. In its issue of 15 July 1900 The Irish Builder suggested that the cost of the completed building "will probably be about £250,000". It appears from the text of Ashlin's obituary that the final cost exceeded £300,000.
Construction of the building commenced in 1896 and was approaching completion in 1900. It was designed to accommodate 1,200 patients. Ashlin's hospital of 1896 is still intact and functioning in part.
Many smaller buildings have been added throughout the 20th century but the original building remains the dominant focus of the site.
The hospital is currently administered by the Health Service Executive (HSE) and caters for less than 200 people. This number is constantly diminishing as patients are gradually transferred to nursing homes. St Ita's was featured in the RTÉ documentary The Asylum in 2005, soon after Prime Time investigated the Leas Cross nursing home, where many former patients had been transferred to, and mistreated by staff.
Much of the property which makes up St Itas is either derelict or being rented to local farmers. As of October 2009, St Ita's still operates 48 acute care beds for those who are too ill to avail of intermediate medical care.
HISTORY: Portrane Lunatic Asylum: Completed by 1902. Constructed because the Richmond Asylum was full. "third phase" of asylum building "culminated in the 1890s in the building of the auxiliary asylum to the Richmond at Portrane, Co Dublin, the largest capital project ever undertaken by the colonial administration in Ireland". (Daly, A. and Walsh, D. 2004).
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Portrane Asylum was built at the end of the nineteenth century on what was then an isolated peninsula on the north coast of Dublin. At one time it comprised nearly 500 acres (2.0 km2) running its own farm and providing its own produce.
The cellular "prison-like" institutions where the mentally ill could be kept under restraint were no longer appropriate or desirable. The asylum could no longer be a place of indefinite internment. Facilities for recreation, occupation and exercise were seen as important elements in the design of institutional buildings for the mentally ill.
society.
However, this was a generally accepted policy in both Great Britain and Ireland in the 19th century.
The design for St. Ita's was the subject of a limited architectural competition which was won by George Ashlin. Although his design was very advanced in its concept at that time, his scheme was sanctioned by the Board of Control and accepted by the Board of Governors of the Richmond Lunatic Asylum in 1895.
exceeded the proposed building budget and he had been allowed to revise his scheme to reduce the cost. The eminent architects Thomas Drew, Albert E. Murray and W. Kaye Parry were not happy with the outcome.
Construction of the building commenced in 1896 and was approaching completion in 1900. It was designed to accommodate 1,200 patients. Ashlin's hospital of 1896 is still intact and functioning in part.
Many smaller buildings have been added throughout the 20th century but the original building remains the dominant focus of the site.
Much of the property which makes up St Itas is either derelict or being rented to local farmers. As of October 2009, St Ita's still operates 48 acute care beds for those who are too ill to avail of intermediate medical care.
1912: "Donabate is a small but interesting village and parish in the Barony of Nethercross. Area, 5,100 acres. Population 734 in 150 houses. It has a station on the
Great Northern Railway system, about ten miles north of Dublin, and two miles from the sea at Portrane. The largest lunatic asylum in Ireland is within the parish at
Portrane. Dr. Cullinan is Chief Medical Officer" 1920: "The whole of the peninsula of Portrane has, in recent years, been altered by the erection of the great lunatic asylum in the grounds of Portrane House, a spacious mansion, now utilised in connection with this institution, and situated nearly in the centre of what was formerly an extensive deer park".
1922 to 1989 Possibly 5,000 asylum residents buried in unmarked graves in the hospital's private cemetery (beside Seaview Park Portrane). In 1989, one headstone was put up in the field in memory of all who were buried there.
Today, the residents are buried in the local Donabate cemetery (external link)
Melissa Monteith's grandmother died in this hospital and we are seeking any information about its history, especially in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s
Now St Ita's Psychiatric Hospital, Portrane, Co. Dublin.
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