Grangegorman Histories Grangegorman Histories

The Market was a significant element of the area in the hinterland of Grangegorman from 1863 when it opened first to 1973 when it was closed down. This talk by Dr Mary Muldowney and Dr Declan O'Brien includes extracts from oral history interviews, with a range of people who shared their memories of working in the Market as well as information about the local and national importance of this very rural enterprise in its busy urban setting. Representing different facets of the life of the Market, the contributors came from various parts of the city and country and shed a fascinating light on what was once such an important workplace.

This talk was delivered on 3 June as part of Revealing Grangegorman, a celebratory event organised by GDA, along with TU Dublin, HSE and Workday.

Grangegorman Histories is a public history programme of research and shared discovery of the Grangegorman site and surrounding communities. Founding partners: Dublin City Council, Grangegorman Development Agency, HSE, Local Communities, National Archives, Royal Irish Academy and TU Dublin.Visit www.grangegormanhistories.ie.

‘Instituting Grangegorman’ is the second in the Grangegorman Histories podcast series exploring the histories of the Grangegorman area of north, inner-city Dublin. Over the past 250 years, Grangegorman has been the site of a workhouse, a prison and a large psychiatric hospital and now this site is being redeveloped as a health and education campus for the HSE, TU Dublin and the local community. This podcast explores the history of the Richmond Lunatic Asylum, now the recently restored TU Dublin Lower House.

Join architectural historian, Patrick Quinlan, as he explores the chequered career of this landmark building: a story of optimistic conception and utilitarian service, of neglect, decline and demise, culminating in the latest chapter of rebirth as a valued architectural and historical landmark.

The architect of the original asylum building was Francis Johnston, most noted as the architect of the General Post Office on O’Connell Street, Dublin and the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle. He designed and constructed the building, which opened in 1814, in a spirit of optimism as a national solution to the shameful conditions in which people with mental illnesses were confined in prisons, bridewells and houses of industry all over Ireland.

The original design and construction included architectural innovations and features that were informed by moral treatment: a progressive and humane approach to the care of people with mental illness popular during the early 19th century. However, by the later 20th century, the building became synonymous with the worst aspects of institutionalisation. Its closure in 1989 was heralded as ‘symbolic of a revolution in healthcare’; its ‘dungeon-like architecture’ fit only for demolition. Three quarters of the building was levelled but Johnston’s entrance front survived. It endured two further decades of decay and dereliction before it was identified as a building of architectural, social and historical importance and worthy of protection. It has become part of the regeneration of the Grangegorman site, transforming this former hospital complex. The building reopened in 2021, ready to write its next chapter as a keycentre for student services on the new TU Dublin Grangegorman campus.

About the podcaster:

Patrick Quinlan, B.Arch, ARB, MUBC

Patrick holds a Masters in Urban and Building Conservation from UCD and is a practicing architect with professional experience spanning from modern healthcare to the conservation and reuse of a range of historic structures. His recently published Walls of Containment, the Architecture and Landscapes of Lunacy  explores the history of Ireland’s legacy asylum sites through the lens of architectural history. Patrick is a past recipient of the RIBA Dissertation Commendation and is currently undertaking a PhD at Birkbeck, University of London.

To celebrate Culture Night 2021, Grangegorman Histories presents ‘Timepiece’ a podcast exploring the history of the unique turret clock in the Clocktower Building at Grangegorman on the northside of Dublin city. This James Waugh clock was installed in 1818 and it is the oldest known flat-bed clock in the world. While the function of the Clocktower building has evolved over the past 200 years from its original purpose as the Richmond Penitentiary and later Grangegorman Female Prison and Transportation depot, where at least 3,200 women and girls were held before their transportation to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), several periods of use as a fever and cholera hospital and finally annexed to the then Richmond District Lunatic Asylum in 1897, the unique timepiece atop this historical structure has remained a constant.

Join Megan Brien, historian of design and interior architecture, with horologists David Boles and Julian Cosby to learn more about turret clocks and the extraordinary features of this historic timepiece. What were turret clocks and why were so important?

Grangegorman Histories is a public history project of Dublin City Council, Grangegorman Development Agency, HSE, Local Communities, National Archives, Royal Irish Academy and TU Dublin. The Grangegorman site is currently being redeveloped as a health and education campus for the HSE, TU Dublin and the local community.