St. Ita's Hospital ( ga, Ospidéal Naomh Ita) is a mental health facility in

Portrane Portrane or Portraine (Irish: ''Port Reachrann'') is a small seaside settlement, three kilometres from,the small town of Donabate in Fingal, Ireland. It lies in the Barony of Nethercross, in the historic County Dublin. Portrane has a long sa ...

in the north of

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

in Ireland.

History

The site selected for the facility, which covered , was the

demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...

surrounding Portrane House, the former home of the Evans family. The facility was the subject of a design competition which was won by

George Ashlin George Coppinger Ashlin (28 May 1837 – 10 December 1921) was an Irish architect, particularly noted for his work on churches and cathedrals, and who became President of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. Biography Ashlin was ...

but his proposed price exceeded the budgeted cost and he was asked to reduce the price: the eminent architect, Sir Thomas Drew, objected to Ashlin being selected on this basis. The facility, which was ultimately designed by Ashlin in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, opened as the Portrane Asylum in 1903. At a cost of 300,000 it was the most expensive building ever commissioned up to that time by the British Government in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. St. Ita's Hospital Radio commenced broadcasting in December 1983 and was the first radio station in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

to receive one of the new broadcast licenses after the provisions of the Broadcasting bill were brought into operation in 1988. After the introduction of deinstitutionalisation in the late 1980s, the hospital went into a period of decline. Nearly 500,000 viewers watched an episode of the RTÉ documentary ''The Asylum'' which featured St Ita's Hospital in 2005. In June 2010, the Mental Health Commission instructed the hospital to stop the admission of acute patients on account of the "entirely unacceptable and inhumane conditions" by 28 February 2011. The hospital closed to inpatients in March 2011 and to outpatients as well in January 2014. The Health Service Executive (HSE) announced in February 2012 that the Central Mental Hospital would relocate to the former site of the old St Ita's Hospital. The construction works, which are being undertaken by Rhatigan OHL at a cost of €140 million, are expected to be completed in late 2019.

References

External links

Mental Health Services - North Dublin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Itas Hospital Hospital buildings completed in 1903 Hospitals established in 1903 Hospitals in Fingal Itas Health Service Executive hospitals Defunct hospitals in the Republic of Ireland 2014 disestablishments in Ireland Hospitals disestablished in 2014 Gothic Revival architecture in Ireland Buildings listed on the Fingal Record of Protected Structures