The Asylum Workshop: A documentary screening
TU Dublin Conservatoire presents a 50-minute documentary exploring the history of St Brendan’s Hospital Grangegorman as a place of psychiatric treatment in relation to the site’s new role as a university.
The history of the hospital is seen through the lens of Colin Murphy’s 2023 play The Asylum Workshop, which the Conservatoire commissioned for its final-year drama students. The production received coverage in the national media for its eye-opening handling of Ireland's history of psychiatric institutionalisation and raised important questions about what it means to represent such institutional history for today's audiences.
The documentary includes insightful contributions from Prof. Brendan Kelly (Professor of Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin and author of Asylum: Inside Grangegorman); Brian Donnelly (Senior Archivist, Irish National Archives); Prof. Mary E. Daly (Professor Emeritus of History, University College Dublin); Ruth Hegarty (Royal Irish Academy and Grangegorman Histories); James Mary O’Connor (Architect of the masterplan for TU Dublin Grangegorman); Colin Murphy (Playwright and Journalist); as well as some of the cast and creative team of the play.
The screening will be followed by a short panel discussion from some of the expert contributors to the documentary.
The documentary is created by Tim Gannon and Graham Seely of Gansee Films.