SERVICES
World Within Walls Exhibition runs from May 2015 to February 2016 at Monaghan County Museum, Hill Street, Monaghan
Monaghan County Museum in partnership with HSE Cavan Monaghan
Presents
World Within Walls
An exhibition exploring the journey from District Lunatic Asylum to Community Services
This ground breaking exhibition provides a fascinating insight into the history of St. Davnet’s, County Monaghan. The site has gone by a number of names over its life time and has evolved from Monaghan and Cavan District Lunatic Asylum, to the Monaghan Mental Hospital, then St. Davnet’s Hospital and finally a multi-purpose campus. In more recent years the campus has begun to close its wards as mental health care changes in nature and becomes increasing focused on providing care in the community. It is in this context that this exhibition aims to recall the histories of the institution, charting its evolution from 1869 to the modern day.
For generations the buildings which make up St Davnet’s has been a silent witness to the changing history of county Monaghan. Thousands of people have passed through its halls, some spending most of their life there either as staff or as service users. Yet for the majority of the population of Monaghan and indeed Cavan, St Davnet’s own story has remained largely untold. This pioneering exhibition will present a poignant and challenging display of the history of an institution’s evolution from a district lunatic asylum to a community service. The story will be told through original artefacts, archives, images, audio visual displays, catalogue and a dedicated website with additional information on all of the themes explored in the exhibition. The display forms a key part of a larger project which was enacted by HSE Cavan Monaghan to conduct thorough investigation of the archives which date back to the opening of the Asylum in 1869.
The exhibition will be launched on Thursday, May 14th at 7:30pm in Monaghan County Museum by Minister for Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht Heather Humphreys TD. The display will be complimented with a range of educational workshops, talks and outreach events that will take place during its run until February 2016.
