Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ST KEVIN’S IN Cork city has been making headlines this week after the iconic building was gutted by a fire on Tuesday night.
The imposing building is infamous among people in Cork who describe it as a chilling and unnerving place with a dark past. It’s a name people remember their parents referencing when they were being scolded as children.
Following this week’s blaze, it’s thought that up to two-thirds of the structure has been destroyed with photos showing that the roof has completely collapsed.
The large red-brick building from the late-19th century has a daunting past as a mental health institution and has been left derelict for the past 15 years after closing in 2002.
To explore the history of the imposing landmark, TheJournal.ie has delved into Oireachtas, newspaper and online archives and reports.
Photographer and historian Tarquin Blake of Abandoned Ireland has described how St Kevin’s was built as an annex at the eastern end of Our Lady’s Hospital complex in 1893 and originally accommodated 490 patients.
The people who ended up in it were often victims of misfortune, illness and abandonment.
Reports from the Inspector of Mental Hospitals reveal that the institution was a vermin-infested, dirty, dark confinement where people who were guilty of nothing were incarcerated.
Discussions about the reports in the Seanad from the 1930s paint a damning picture.
In 1934, the Seanad heard that no soap or towels were available and there were no curtains on the windows or seats in the toilets. Senators were also told that the lavatories were dirty. Patients’ own money was used to buy six washing machines for use by 21 female patients in one ward.
In 1935, many patients were in bed when inspectors called at 5.30pm. There were no curtains in the dormitories and sheets of plywood were being used to cover all the broken windows in the bathroom of one male ward which housed 22 patients.
Some people were incarcerated in units that were roofed like a stall and doors were closed by three farmyard bolts.
In 1936, it was reported that there was no activities during the day and patients just sat around waiting for bedtime, which was somewhere between 5.30pm and 6.30pm.
The Cork Examiner described it as a “chapter of horrors” in 1937. The inspector said rubbish, litter and toilet rolls were discarded around the exterior of Our Lady’s while connecting corridors and walkways were “dirty beyond description”. Inside walls were peeling and windows were dirty with an opaque matter, while toilets were also dirty with floors sometimes filthy and wet.
A report by the Inspector of Mental Hospitals in 1938 revealed that Our Lady’s cost £10 million to £11 million to run annually. The Inspector stated, “The service provided by the hospital is extremely poor and for the most part appears to provide the worst form of custodial care.”
A report on the hospital in 1939 was described as an “appalling, distressing, disturbing, and offensive document” that confirmed the hospital was “a disgrace”.
The conclusion of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals’ Report stated:
Over the years the conditions inside Our Ladys Hospital and St Kevin’s was condemned and declared a total disgrace. The people incarcerated in the asylum were guilty of nothing. Vulnerable, innocent and harmless. They did not deserve what was done to them. Victims of misfortune, victims of illness and indeed, tragically, of abandonment. They were locked up in a vermin-infested, unsanitary, dirty, dark confinement.
Despite the horrific details of the treatment of patients throughout the 1930s being made public, St Kevin’s facility remained open for psychiatric patients – and was consistently the focus of much controversy.
810 admissions in 1998
Our Lady’s Hospital was a mental health institution built in the 1840s. The complex was made up by a number of major buildings, Our Lady’s – also known as the Grey Building – and St Bridget’s which only closed in the early 1990s. Our Lady’s, St Bridget’s and several smaller buildings were subsequently sold by the former Southern Health Board.
St Kevin’s, St Ann’s, St Dympna’s and St John’s closed between 2001 and 2009. These buildings and a number of smaller buildings remain in HSE ownership.
A Report of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals from 1999 described how inpatient care was provided at Our Lady’s Hospital and St Anne’s 46-bed acute unit.
Twenty beds were provided in St Kevin’s long-stay psychiatric unit and a further 40 beds were provided in the intensive care unit at St Kevin’s Block, Our Lady’s Hospital.
One-hundred-and-six patients were in the hospital and acute unit on 31 December 1998. About 25% of patients had been hospitalised for more than five years, 11% for between one and five years, 51% for between three and twelve months and 13% for less than three months.
Fifty-eight patients were prescribed electroconvulsive therapy ECT in 1998.
The report also stated that the ”physical conditions in the intensive care units in St Kevin’s were most unsatisfactory“.
Fifty-five accidents to patients and seven accidents to staff were recorded. There were seven recorded assaults on staff, two of which were deemed serious.
There were 810 admissions to inpatient care during 1998 and 228 were first admissions. Seven patients had their temporary orders extended during the year and 12 patients became new long-stay patients in 1998. There were 820 discharges and four deaths in the same year.
The opening of a new mental health unit at Mercy University Hospital was a priority in 1998 and the report stated that referrals to St Anne’s Unit would cease once the acute unit in the Mercy Hospital opened.
Plans for St Kevin’s
Locals reacted to the news of the fire this week by saying it was a shame the 200-year-old building was left derelict for so long and that no restorative work was done to re-purpose it.
In 2007, the then-Health Minister Mary Harney revealed that €6,000 a week was being spent on security for the building. She noted that €1,590.975 was spent between 2002 and 2007.
However nothing has happened the building despite the expense of security.
The HSE has said that the site has been offered to other government departments with a view to making it available for sale on the open market. However, it confirmed that the building has not been put up for sale.
A spokesperson told TheJournal.ie:
The HSE has recently engaged with an estate agent to discuss the potential of bringing the campus to the open market. A property valuation is being prepared by an estate agent, should the property be put on the open market, in the event that other state agencies are not interested in acquiring the campus.
During the week local councillors told this website that accommodation for homeless families or students could be two of several options to explore.
Discussions about the building have been ongoing for years. Speaking in 2013, Fine Gael TD Brian Hayes told a Seanad debate that the HSE “seeks value for money in deciding whether to sell or redevelop properties and this is often a complex and difficult balancing act”.
He said the HSE property committee rejects any proposal that does not meet the requirements and does not achieve value for money. He added:
The topography of the Shanakiel campus and the presence of rights of way make its disposal difficult and a particularly complex undertaking.
He said the HSE “continuously reviews vacant property with a view to refurbishing, rebuilding or redeveloping properties, such as the remaining Shanakiel campus”.
Security
The building was previously owned by the former Southern Health Board, before the HSE took it over during its establishment in 2005.
The HSE has defended the security it had in place at St Kevin’s saying rigorous security measures were “reviewed and updated continuously”.
In a statement it said, “The HSE have a contract in place with an external security company who provide twice daily security patrols.
To prevent unwanted access into the buildings on the campus, the HSE arranged the installation of 235 fixed panel shutters, to accessible windows and doors on lower floors of the campus buildings.
“A CCTV system is installed on the perimeter of the site and is monitored on a 24/7 basis.”
They added that maintenance teams carried out weekly inspections of the site and carried out repairs as and when needed.
Security has now been stepped up at the site with a spokesperson telling this website, “A continuous security presence has been placed on the site and will remain in place for the immediate future. An exclusion zone will be created around St. Kevin’s building with the use of Heras fencing.”
The psychiatric profession in Ireland have so much to answer for.
@Mark DeFriest: If by psychiatric profession you mean the Catholic Church, then you’re bang on the money.
@Mark DeFriest: Nothing much has changed within mental health services in Ireland, that philosophy of abandonment is as real today as it has been in the past 100 years.
Today abandonment is seen in those with mental health issues poor, homeless, unemployed,in prisons, suffering from a lack of access to community mental health service, no follow up or supports. As Gerry Adams might parahhase it, despite the close of the Victorian Asylums, those in need of mental health service haven’t gone away you know.
@Mark DeFriest: people forget it was the families who put them there
@Atheos Euripides:
I think the term for that kind of thinking is ‘Delusional’.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan:
In many instances.
Very disturbing though the number of mentally stable people who ended up incarcerated in these institutions which calls into question any claim the psychiatric profession makes to being regarded as a science.
In essence it’s a pseudo science really which masquerades as a front for the pharmaceutical industry. Chemical constraint is the modus operandi where unwitting ‘clients’ have historically been used as guinea pigs to boost profits of large companies.
And if the drugs don’t work then they’ll fry your brain or perform the medieval procedure of lobotomy all the while impressing upon the community that these procedures are carried out in compassion usually accompanied by the caveat: ‘Well, in real terms we actually know very little about the brain – but you can trust us’
We still have lobotomys today just in the form of tranquilizers. They mimic the effects of one, it’s just less invasive.
@Mark DeFriest: i will make that 200 hundred likes simply regarding to the fact that i had to visit a very close relative there when i was very small. It still haunts me to this day. She wasn’t allowed out and i couldn’t stay. It was always such an imposing landmark its dark shadow casting its presence over the landscape of cork. Everytime i looked at it from the Lee road it sent a shiver down my spine
@Atheos Euripides: yes, another oportunity to slate the church. Bad as it must have been at least the church put some kind of roof over their heads and refused to “abandon” them like their families did. The church were left to pick up the pieces when family, government and indeed siociety could not have cared less. Bad indeed, but better than the streets, which is where we “house” them today! Today we are doing worse than the church did back then, in our siociety we truely understand the term “abandon”
@Atheos Euripides:
These Public Hospitals were not staffed by religious orders as you are trying to imply. The health boards were responsible .
@Mark DeFriest: 100% in agreement with you there. too much could be said about that particular subject but lets leave it at that.
€6,000 a week for 2 drive by patrols a day ?
Easy money for some ‘security’ company.
@eastsmer #IRExit: €4.5million over 15 years if my maths is correct…surely they could have renovated the building with that money…oh wait, I forgot the “they” is the HSE who only know how to waste money.
There is nothing wrong with any building new or old, whether its a council flat or a mental home, they are just blocks and mortar.
Its what Humans do with them that cause the problems.
All of the awful descriptions above are the result of lazy Humans, if they had such an impact on the inspectors and reporters why didnt the do something to clean it up?
Lazy humans.
It is truly incredible that governments of all colours could never decide what to do with the building. If the HSE cannot even sell a building, how are they supposed to fix the health service?!
It wasn’t the institute that was at fault. It was society….family, church, government, etc
Can we please erase the names of fictional characters, otherwise known as Saint this and Saint that, from the titles of our hospitals and hospital wards, we do not live in medieval times and the mere sight of these signs must bring terrible memories flooding back to the people who were brutalised by the Catholic Church in this country.
@Atheos Euripides: we’ll have to pray to the patron Saint of renaming things
@Atheos Euripides: you mean the state I presume or do you absolve the state of all of it’s responsibilities here? Just sayin!
@Sean @114: The Church was the State and the State was the Church back then, recommended reading; Junior Certificate Irish history book.
@Atheos Euripides: just because the names of saints annoys you does not mean than they annoy everyone.
Like many other so called “mental health” institutions around the country. St Conal’s in Donegal for instance. It’s utterly depressing to think that we really haven’t come far at all in providing care to those that need it… The recent revelations about children in need of mental health care are shameful
Always knew the place as St Anne’s as opposed to St Kevin’s
@mcgoo: I’m the opposite, always St Kevin’s to me, had a family member as an in-patient there.St Anne’s is now Carraig Mòr near the grotto at the junction of Shanakiel road and Blarney Street.
Here we go again, the never ending tales of horror in Catholic Ireland. Incarcerating the innocent in concentration camp conditions, removing their last shreds of humanity and dignity. What about the community, relatives, friends of these unfortunates, the staff,what was their role in all of this? Toothless authorities and inspectors reporting on the bestial conditions in St Kevin’s but not imposing any changes,running away in disgust and doing nothing.
@Jenny mcCarty: it’s not been closed 15 years
Why aren’t the security company who were paid €6000 a week to keep trouble makers out held accountable, disgraceful
@Unsinkable No.2: wood what security company is getting that money. Wonder who the directors of same are? Does any one know. Interesting.
three kids were seen running from the premises, selfies were supposed to have been put on facebook of the same three people. if brought to justice they will get a fuc&ing slap on the wrist and told dont do this again. typical irish judical system.
I live locally to this building and I’m shocked to learn that that much was being spent on security. It’s a well known hotspot for underage drinking and antisocial behaviour. Shocking to say the least.
My Uncle was a patient there and I visited him as a child. It is a memory that will stay with me forever. Outside of the dirt and squalor and locked doors, I remember the utter hopelessness of the place. Patients some half dressed and others in ragged clothes lying on floors and sitting against walls crying and screaming with no one giving them care or comfort. I can still see the hands reaching out to us for help as we passed. It was like a scene from Dantes inferno. I am glad that building is gone, it was a house of pain and violence and no flashy renovation would have changed that.
Those poor souls
Should have been knocked down years ago.
@Jay Warner: why not turn into housing units for the homeless
You don’t have to go back 100 years or even 50 try 10-20 to see proof of this and I’m pretty sure equivalents are happening right now. The writer means well I’m sure but unless you’ve gone through it you have no idea.
@Bill Fitzgerald: It’s okay to talk about depression and other psychological problems. But bear in mind that talking to psychiatrists doesn’t always help and might end up making you feel worse. In TV ads for financial products viewers are warned that the value of certain investments can go down as well as up and I feel the psychiatric profession should come with a similar warning.
£10-£11 million a year to run it in 1938? That is an tremendous sum for that time. It must be a typo.
@Ronan McKeon: If the Catholic Church and the Irish Government are involved, real economics go out the window..
My dad worked there as a psychiatric nurse. I used to have nightmares weirdly about a guy kevin who frequented there. Weeird….
WE MUST ALWAYS REMEMBER WHAT BANANA REPUBLIC WE LIVE IN!
I wonder how many bodies will be found buried in the slurry pit.
Ireland really needs to start prosecuting priests and guards and corrupt politicians.
If you rape kids, you go to jail.
If you kill people in your care, you go to jail.
If you lie under oath you go to jail.
Etc etc.
@Kenny Hyslop:
At that time the patients were buried in unmarked graves in the grounds of the hospital by the staff which were called attendants in those days.These burial places were nondenominational as mental illness can strike anyone. Also in the early part of the 19th Century when the census was carried out the patients were grouped together and recorded as 500 Lunatics or what the current no were on that night. Families were ashamed of their sick relatives such was the ignorance of mental illness then.
Just like every other devils building like st kevin. they need to be knocked and get the devil go with it the hurt this county has caused so many people all to do with so called religion. Its a FU@@@@@@n Disgrace that people were left to rot and like the kids of Tuam. when will this blasted county ever get with the rest of the world. Total Disgrace i could say a lot more but its pointless as were just not be listened to. just takes what comes at us. and those poor people today that is in mental institutions today insepection should be done once a week
@Kate Marie: and today we
@Kate Marie: sry, and today we just leave them in the streets! That makes us so much better? In my opinion we, yes “WE” should get our own house in order before we rant and rave about the past mistakes we made. Blaming the church is the easiest cop out – sure, we were not to blame for abandoning anyone, it was the church!!!!
@Kate Marie:
Mental Hospitals had nothing to do with the church . They were run by the State.
have your say