Richmond Lunatic Asylum

The Richmond Lunatic Asylum, a psychiatric facility in the northwest Dublin suburb of Grangegorman that in 1904 was the largest and most important in Ireland, comes up several times in the novel. In Telemachus Mulligan refers to it mockingly as "Dottyville" and mentions "Conolly Norman," who superintended the Asylum from 1886 until his death in 1908. In Circe Bello notes that "Keating Clay is elected vicechairman of the Richmond asylum," and in Oxen of the Sun one of the medical students speculates that the man in the macintosh has been released from this hospital.

John Hunt 2011


2010 photograph by Quasihuman of the Richmond asylum, designed in the 18th century by architect Francis Johnston. Source: Wikimedia Commons.