Association for the Rights of the Mentally Handicapped go on hunger strike over patient housing conditions at St Ita's Hospital in Portrane.
One of the largest psychiatric hospitals in the country, St Ita’s in Portrane has provided long term residential care for people with mental illness and intellectual disability.
At present, up to 200 patients are being housed in huts which were constructed almost 100 years ago. Intended as temporary accommodation for the workmen who built the hospital, they are now in a dilapidated condition and no longer fit for purpose.
A purpose-built 72 bed unit on the hospital campus is currently lying idle due to a dispute between trade unions and hospital management.
Anne Ryan, from the Association for the Rights of the Mentally Handicapped, whose 14 year old son is a patient in the hospital, has seen at first hand the conditions being endured by patients who live in these huts. She explains why she and others have gone on hunger strike,
We were horrified at what we saw. Now when we went through that, we found the psychiatric nurses there were also horrified. And psychiatric nurses have spoken out on this frequently before on several occasions and then it seem s to be all buried. Now this is one area which is prone to neglect, because mentally handicapped, when they’re adults often don’t have relatives, for a start, and some of them are abandoned, and they certainly can’t protest on their own behalf, and that’s the reason for our action here today.
Huts which house patients in St Ita's Hospital Portrane, County Dublin (1978)
The Medical Director of St Ita’s Doctor Michael McGuinness acknowledges that improvement relating to the care for patients is slow,
The whole picture is gradually changing, and has changed quite substantially in the last 3 or 4 years, a lot of money has been spent.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 1 August 1978. The reporter is Eddie Barrett.
This report uses terminology acceptable at the time of broadcast which now may be considered offensive.
