Calls for 'dignified resting place' for hundreds of Mayo patients interred in mass grave

by Tom Shiel

The Castlebar District Asylum was one of several asylums built throughout the 32 counties in response to the Report from the Select Committee on Relief of Lunatic Poor In Ireland published in 1817, which highlighted the lack of facilities for the treatment of people with mental illness.

The first such facility west of the Shannon was the Connaught Lunatic Asylum, later known as St. Bridget’s Hospital, in Ballinasloe, which opened in 1833 and patients from Mayo had to travel there for treatment.

So the opening of the asylum in Castlebar in 1866 was, at that time, a major development and improvement for this area.

As time went on, those patients who died in the asylum and whose remains were not brought home by their relatives for burial in their own area were interred in a mass grave on the asylum grounds at Aglish.

There is mention in the Register of the Board of Governors that at a meeting of the governors held in December 1885, with the approval of the then Home Secretary, Lord Balford, a decision to open a graveyard on the asylum grounds at Aglish was taken, the purpose being for the burial of Roman Catholic inmates from the Castlebar Lunatic Asylum.

We know that the graveyard in Aglish was used for the burial of patients who died in the asylum between 1878 and 1922 and whose remains were not taken by their relatives for burial in their family plot.

It is less clear where patients who died during the first 12 years of the asylum’s existence between 1866 and 1878 are buried but oral history suggests that they too were buried in this same area.

Review of the Registrar for Deaths and Discharges from 1866 to 1922 shows that 1,956 patients died in the asylum during that 56-year period.

It should be pointed out that most died from physical causes, mainly from tuberculosis (TB) or Phthisis, as it was referred to in the past.

Today, we have no way of knowing how many of these patients were taken home for burial in their family plot.

The earliest written indication pertaining to the number taken back home for burial is for a small group of male patients who died in the asylum in 1901.

Case notes indicate that about a quarter of these males were taken by their families for burial in their native area, leaving the remainder to be buried in Aglish.

As one would expect, in the early years, it is likely that less patients were repatriated but over the years, as communication and transport systems improved, more and more people were brought home for burial.

1922 saw the end of burials in Aglish when the New Cemetery at Lough Lannagh on the Westport Road started to be used and where about 350 patients were subsequently buried in an unmarked grave.

From the 1990s onwards, patients were placed in individually marked graves. In later years, it had become the custom for families of deceased patients to take their relative home to be buried.

While we can never be sure of how many are interred in unmarked graves in the Aglish Graveyard, the stark reality is that this ground is the resting place for hundreds of patients who died in the Castlebar District Lunatic Asylum.

It is important to note that while this burial ground is located in Castlebar town, those buried there came from all parts of Mayo.

For the past few years, the St. Mary’s Heritage Society, a small group of former employees from the Mayo Mental Health Service, under the chairmanship of Anthony O’Boyle, have been attempting to upgrade this burial area and develop a fitting memorial to the many buried there.

Former members of staff, including Matt Shaw, Tom Scahill and Gerry Neary, at their own expense, cleared away this area and with financial assistance from the HSE, a plaque was erected and unveiled to the memory of those buried there at a religious ceremony on July 31, 2014.

While this plaque remains in place the area has yet again fallen into disrepair.

Despite the best efforts of the St. Mary’s Heritage Society and support from the HSE, there has been little progress made to-date to repair and upgrade this burial ground and provide a fitting memorial to the hundreds buried there.

The graveyard is currently not accessible to the public due to health and safety considerations and neither is it visible from the road, hence a great many are unaware of its existence.

According to the St. Mary’s Heritage Society, Mayo County Council and the Health Service Executive accept that there are legacy issues to resolve here.

Mayo County Council, which strongly supports the restoration of this area, is endeavouring to identify a funding system to restore the graveyard as a fitting memorial to those former patients who have been laid to rest there.

The St. Mary’s Heritage Society hopes that by increasing awareness within the community it will generate interest and foster a shared sense of responsibility to remember those Mayo people with respect and honour.

In a statement, the society said: “We accept that Mayo County Council have many competing priorities for various projects across the county.

“However, we respectfully suggest that providing a dignified resting place for those interred in Aglish should be a priority.

“After almost one hundred and sixty years, it is surely past time to rectify this grievous neglect."