Lucan
St Edmundsbury House and Demesne was acquired as a branch of St Patrick’s Hospital James Street in 1898.
[Editor’s note: St. Edmundsbury started off life as just “Edmundspery” after its owner “Edmund S. Pery” who was an Anglo-Irish politician. Edmund Sexton Pery was the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in the late 18th Century, the 1st Vicount Pery and you can read the entry on Wikipedia about him here. ]
[Portrait by Gilbert Stuart]
St Patrick’s Hospital was founded, endowed and named by Dean Swift in 1745 and was the first ,and for many years the only, hospital established in Ireland for the treatment of Mental Illness.
The House as seen above in a brochure c 1920 was named in it as The Ladies Hospital and of course had female patients from the start.
A Villa was built for Gentlemen during the years 1905-07 to accommodate 8 patients as shown below.
O S map of 1908 below shows the location of where the Villa was.
In the census of 1901 the following was found:
Matron and 6 nurses, one cook and kitchen maid, one laundress and 2 maids, one housekeeper and 2 maids. Total staff in House 15.
Patients numbered 18 all female and described as Genlewomen.
Youngest was 22 and oldest 75. All were Church of Ireland.
Four born in Co Dublin, one in Scotland and the rest in various counties in Ireland.
Six were widows, five were married and seven not married.
One patient who was described as having dementia for 18 years was aged only 32.
There were other employees on the grounds in various houses.
The Census of 1911 has additional patients
One Assistant Resident Medical Officer.
Matron and 9 Nurses
17 female patients, two were Roman Catholic and the rest Church of Ireland.
Youngest was 30 and oldest was 80.
Seven suffered from Mania of which 5 were heredity and the other 2 had an additional cause of a love affair.
Male Patients (Villa)
There were 4 male patients. There were 3 male attendants.
A farmer aged 61 from Co Wexford, a retired major aged 62, a gentleman from Western Australia aged 59 and a medical student aged 70 from Sligo.
All suffered from Delusional Insanity.
Two were Roman Catholic and two were Church of Ireland.
Footnote: In 1911 in the main St Patrick’s Hospital there were 107 patients
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