Jan 2014 - Present

World within Walls is a project which aims to remember the histories of St. Davnet’s former psychiatric hospital in Monaghan town. The project is funded by the HSE and is being delivered by Stair: An Irish Public History under the guidance of the HSE steering committee. The committee is comprised of former senior staff, representatives from the local historical society, mental health practitioners and representation from the National Archives of Ireland.

St. Davnet’s was founded in 1869. Catering for Cavan and Monaghan counties, it was one of the many district asylums built throughout Ireland, in the 1800s, to care for those with mental illness. Over its long history, local people and families have been involved with St. Davnet’s in various ways – as patients, as relatives and friends of patients, as staff members and as contractors or suppliers.  The site itself, which was in many ways a world within walls, has had a significant impact on the social and economic development of the town. Today, with increasing awareness of mental health and the move towards the provision of mental health services in a community setting, it is fitting that this project takes place to remember and recall the histories of St. Davnet’s in its place and time.

This project will engage with the histories of St. Davnet’s in a number of ways. An archival project will take place on site documenting the records of the hospital. Stemming from this information a book will be published which reflects on the history of the asylum from its foundation to modern day memories which will be collected from the community. There will be interaction with schools throughout the project, teaching students not only about the history of a place but also about mental health in society, encouraging them to become more aware of their own mental health and giving them tools to help take care of it. At the end of the project in 2015 there will be an exhibition which will be an accumulation of the work to date. This will tell the story of St. Davnet’s in an accessible and visual way.

Through these various means World within Walls will paint a multi layered picture of an institution which formed a key element in the history of Cavan and Monaghan. Not only will it provide an insight in the history of an important part of Irish pysh-history, it will also raise awareness of the changes which have occurred in our provision of mental health care over the last 145 years.

May 2014

Arguably the most significant figure in Ireland’s fight against TB, this sensitive and compelling biography tells the fascinating story of Dorothy Stopford Price. Unjustly forgotten, Price made heroic efforts to rid Ireland of tuberculosis and was responsible for the introduction of the BCG vaccine to Ireland. MacLellan recounts a remarkable life, offering a fascinating insight into Price’s Anglo-Irish background, her startling involvement in the struggle for Irish independence and her brilliant and controversial medical career in the newly-independent state.

April 2014

MALARIA MUSEUM Dublin’s very own Pop-up Malaria Museum will open in TMB’s headquarters at the top of Grafton Street on 25th April 2014.

Fiona Byrne was commissioned to make an artist's representation of plasmodium falciparum the parasite which causes malaria. The piece consists of two large cast glass pieces which feature the distinctive outer spikes of the parasite.

The Malaria Museum is a quirky experiential space, educating visitors with a variety of historical artefacts and interactive art works. 
While the opening of the pop-up museum coincided with World Malaria Day, on April 25th, making Dublin part of a Global conversation about malaria, and the Malaria Museum website will remain a permanent virtual space to bring together the different voices from around the world that are working to end malaria.

2013

Growing Pains, the first history of childhood illness in Ireland from the 18th to the 20th century, examines attitudes to paediatric disease management, while also revealing new insights into radical experimental treatments in Irish hospitals and specialised institutions for sick children.



Using institutional records, government publications, contemporary medical accounts and extensive oral history, Growing Pains provides an in-depth account of both infectious and noninfectious diseases. It is the first collection of essays that examines the social, cultural and political aspects of children’s health and the development of state systems to care for their physical, psychological and social needs.

While each story tells its own tale, the over-arching narrative is the changing concept of and responses to childhood illness. This rich collection of essays will act as an inspiration for future research into childhood illnesses in Ireland.

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Published by Irish Academic Press

Growing Pains is available as an illustrated paperback, priced at €27.95

ISBN 97807136531739.

Feb 2014

Aimed at the student and general reader, this is a study of Ireland’s people, landscape and place in the world from late antiquity to the reign of Brian Bórama. It narrates the story of Ireland’s emergence into history, using anthropological, archaeological, historical and literary evidence. Subjects covered include the king, the kingdom and the royal household; religion and customs; free and unfree classes in society; exiles and foreigners. The rural, urban, ecclesiastical, ceremonial and mythological landscapes of early medieval Ireland anchor the history of early Irish society in the rich tapestry of archaeological sites, monuments and place-names that have survived to the present. A historiography of medieval Irish studies presents the commentaries of a variety of scholars from the 17th-century Franciscan Mícheál Ó Cléirigh to Eoin Mac Neill, the founding father of modern scholarship. 

9 May – 31 August 2013

The Institute for Ireland in Europe, Leuven, Belguim

Artists: Colin Martin, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Hughie O’Donoghue, 

Geraldine O’Reilly, Robert Russell 

‘Shaping Identities Together: Ag Cruthú le Chéile’ connects five contemporary artists with the fascinating history of the Irish Franciscans in Europe. The books and manuscripts collected and printed by the friars provided the inspiration for this exhibition, creating a unique window into the histories of printing and reading at the heart of Europe.

The idea for this exhibition originally came from the gardens at the old college of St. Anthony’s, now the Institute for Ireland in Europe at Leuven, where roughly carved letters from the seventeenth-century printing press were discovered under the earth. Five artists were invited to celebrate the past of the Institute, and to explore the importance of Leuven in the dissemination of ideas through words. The artists selected, Colin Martin, Eoin Mac Lochlainn, Hughie O’Donoghue, Geraldine O’Reilly and Robert Russell, have all engaged with the idea of the past in their artistic practice. The works which they have created for this exhibition, in print, paint and video, reflect the individual histories of the people who lived at the college, as well as the histories and journeys of their books, and the impact which they have had on countless people throughout the centuries.

This exhibition is the result of the collaboration between the Leuven Institute for Ireland in Europe, the Franciscan Order, the Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute at UCD and The National Print Museum. It is supported by the Franciscan Order and Culture Ireland, and forms part of Ireland’s celebrations during the Presidency of the EU Council.

September 5, 2012

This volume is the culmination of an inter-disciplinary project undertaken as part of the Discovery Programme involving archaeologists, historians, linguists and place-name experts. It includes prosopographies of the kings and queens of Tara from mythology to the eighth century; a re-assessment of the nature of the kingship of Tara; legal aspects of the kingship of Tara; the origin and extent of the place name Temair; Tara and the supernatural; the archaeology and topography of the kingdom of Brega; editions of two of the earliest texts relating to the kingship of Tara. 

Published by Four Courts Press for the Discovery Program (2005)ISBN:1-85182-954-7 Catalogue Price: €65.00