The Asylum Workshop
Published on 12. June 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
96 pages
978-1-350-42973-4 (ISBN)
Description
You think this is dignified? A bunch of students playing with someone's medical records?
Why did 20th century Ireland lock up so many people?
After all the scandals about Ireland's institutions - the industrial schools, the mother and baby homes, the Magdalene laundries - why have we still barely investigated the largest institutions of them all: the psychiatric hospitals?
Today, Grangegorman is home to the newly opened campus of Technological University Dublin. But for nearly 200 years, it housed a forbidding institution behind high walls.
The Asylum Workshop is a new documentary play by Colin Murphy about the history of Ireland's first public psychiatric hospital. Drawing on unique access to the hospital's archives, it weaves together verbatim testimony from patients and families, reports from doctors and nurses, and analysis from historians and psychiatrists.
This edition is published to coincide with the production by Technological University Dublin and Grangegorman Histories in the East Quad Black Box Theatre in June 2023.
Why did 20th century Ireland lock up so many people?
After all the scandals about Ireland's institutions - the industrial schools, the mother and baby homes, the Magdalene laundries - why have we still barely investigated the largest institutions of them all: the psychiatric hospitals?
Today, Grangegorman is home to the newly opened campus of Technological University Dublin. But for nearly 200 years, it housed a forbidding institution behind high walls.
The Asylum Workshop is a new documentary play by Colin Murphy about the history of Ireland's first public psychiatric hospital. Drawing on unique access to the hospital's archives, it weaves together verbatim testimony from patients and families, reports from doctors and nurses, and analysis from historians and psychiatrists.
This edition is published to coincide with the production by Technological University Dublin and Grangegorman Histories in the East Quad Black Box Theatre in June 2023.
Reviews / Votes
Colin Murphy [is] rapidly becoming the great chronicler of our history, recent and past. * Irish Daily Mail *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight
104 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-42973-4 (9781350429734)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Colin Murphy writes plays about politics, and journalism. He is the author of a series of plays on Irish political history: Haughey/Gregory, on the 1982 "Gregory Deal", Inside the GPO, on the Easter Rising, Guaranteed!, on the bank guarantee of 2008, and Bailed Out!, on the subsequent crisis and Troika "bailout" of 2010, all produced by Fishamble. He adapted the latter two for screen, as The Guarantee and The Bailout (both produced by John Kelleher Media). He adapted the Charlie Bird book A Day in May for the stage. His verbatim dramas, Jack Duggan's War and Judging Shaw (based on Fintan O'Toole's book of the same name) have been staged by ANU Productions. His short film Leave to Remain was made for RTE Storyland (produced by Treasure Entertainment). He writes a weekly column for the Sunday Business Post.