St Loman’s should be used ‘as a space for mental health education’

St Loman’s Hospital should be used as a space for mental health education and “a space where children and adults can heal and recover”.

That’s according to activist Julie Clarke, founder of the Friends of Julia organisation, which is campaigning for the erection of a memorial wall on the site of the graveyard at St Loman’s, where 1,304 patients were buried. The crosses at each grave, which were only identified by numbers, were removed in 2011.

In a letter responding to Deputy Robert Troy’s proposal that the largely vacant state-owned site be used to help solve the housing shortage, Ms Clarke and Niall Breslin, who are working together on the Friends of Julia campaign, put forward an alternative use for St Loman’s.

“There is no doubt that the old psychiatric hospital in Mullingar needs to be given a new purpose. The history of trauma and suffering associated with this hospital, as with all of the old psychiatric institutions in our country, needs to be healed.

“How we treat mental health difficulties in our country today is embedded in a medical model – that model needs to change. We have an opportunity to use the building and site of St Loman’s as a space for mental health education and a space where children and adults can heal and recover their mental health using a range of holistic therapies.”

The Friends of Julia founder also used the letter to once again call for the erection of a memorial wall on the site the graveyard at St Loman’s.

“The St Loman’s authorities have a record of the names of all the people buried in this field. Our request of the HSE is to erect a memorial wall naming everyone buried there. The HSE claim medical confidentiality as the reason they cannot name the people buried in this mass graveyard.

“In July of this year, 12 families erected memorial crosses with names of their relatives, including my own family. It is obviously discriminatory that one group of people should be buried in a mass grave while down the road people buried in the same period in a public graveyard have grave markings with their names.

“This situation at St Loman’s graveyard is replicated across the country in old psychiatric institutions.

“The situation in St Loman’s is simply addressed by erecting a memorial wall with the names of the 1304 buried there and ensuring the integrity of the graveyard into the future.

“All of us in this country have a right to have a name above our grave. The fact that this right is not extended to every citizen of our country, especially the most vulnerable in our society, is an obvious wrong that is easily corrected if the will to do so is there.”