Shell shock in Ireland: The Richmond War Hospital, Dublin (1916–19)

Abstract

The history of mental disorders occasioned by World War I is a complex and important history, indelibly linked with social, political and cultural circumstances, and the history of the war itself. The Richmond War Hospital was a 32-bed establishment on the grounds of the large Richmond District Asylum in Dublin which, from 16 June 1916 until 23 December 1919, treated 362 soldiers with shell shock and other mental disorders, of whom more than half were considered to have recovered. Despite the limitations of the Richmond War Hospital, it was a generally forward-looking institution that pointed the way for future reform of Ireland’s asylum system and, along with the other war hospitals, brought significant changes to the practice of psychiatry.