My great grandmother was a human being... she deserves respect
No markings on grave at hospital site, so reburial is not allowed
AWOMAN who applied to have her great-grandmother reinterred has been refused by Westmeath County Council because it cannot find her grave – although she is buried on the grounds of St Loman’s Hospital in Mullingar. Julia Caffrey Leonard was 32 years old and pregnant with her sixth child when gardaí took her from her home in Newhaggard, Co. Meath, and committed her to the asylum in Mullingar.
It was November 13, 1897, and Julia never left the hospital again. Her children were placed in industrial schools.
Julia Caffrey’s crime was to throw scalding water over her husband when she discovered he was having an affair – an affair that was initially denied but has since been proven.
Ms Caffrey died at the hospital on February 10, 1919.
In 2011, her great-grandchild Julianne Clarke, from Galway, applied to have her great grandmother’s remains exhumed so she could be buried with her family. Her request was denied.
When Ms Clarke investigated further, she discovered that a staggering 1,304 patients are buried in unmarked graves on a single site in St Loman’s Hospital.
Each grave was originally marked with a metal cross and number – but the grave site was revamped in recent years and all of the crosses were removed.
Ms Clarke, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘You wouldn’t know it was a graveyard at all. It seems there were crosses there marking each grave but, in 2011, they were dug up and the place turned into what looks like a field.
‘There is no way of locating a grave, so there is no way of locating my great grandmother’s grave.
‘Julia was a real living breathing human being, a wife and mother of six children. Each of the other 1,303 patients buried there were also real living human beings with stories to tell.
‘Julia and her fellow patients were silenced during their lifetime by Irish society. Do we now silence them in death?’
St Loman’s Hospital was built in 1855 and extended in 1985. A report carried out by the inspector of mental health services in 2007 created a picture of the appalling systemic abuses that some residents had endured in psychiatric hospitals around the country.
The burial site at St Loman’s is unmarked, apart from a memorial dedicated to all who died there as well as a large grave and headstone erected to the first psychiatrist at the asylum and his wife. Having initially written to the HSE, Ms Clarke received a plot and number for her great grandmother’s grave but when she wrote to the council, it rejected her application. In a letter dated May 14, 2011, the council said it could not carry out an exhumation where ‘the remains lie unidentified in a common plot. Due respect to the deceased cannot be guaranteed and public health and decency cannot be protected.’
Undertaker Con Gilsenan in Mullingar, said: ‘Julianne asked me to do the exhumation. She made an application the HSE and council at the time but it didn’t get the go-ahead because there are no crosses or headstone.
‘She had a fair indication of where her great grandmother’s grave was but all the crosses were removed. Some relatives, have taken remains to their family plots but without a permit, I can’t do anything, unfortunately.
‘You wouldn’t know it was a graveyard at all’ ‘I can’t do anything without a permit’
‘There is another graveyard in Ballyglass, which would be the main cemetery for those who have no relatives or no next of kin but there wouldn’t be many of them.’
In a statement, the HSE said: Due to the frequent trespassers and vandalism, hundreds of the grave crosses were removed and damaged. The remaining crosses – which were interfered with and moved around by trespassers – were collected and put into storage. The HSE, in partnership with various bodies, carried out maintenance works and restoration of the cemetery.’
In February 2005, Mental Health Ireland held a ceremony to mark the work undertaken at the cemetery and to reflect on the lives of the many people buried there.
A plaque was unveiled at this ceremony and is on permanent display in the hospital chapel.
In recent years, a stone-cut commemorative monument and seating area/shrubbery was erected in the graveyard.
Since February 2005, an annual memorial service has been held at St Loman’s Hospital chapel to remember the patients buried on the grounds.
Known relatives of the deceased are invited.