Recreation, celebration and occupying time

 

In the early days of the asylum, patients played cards and draughts in their spare time. From 1878, a band was employed twice a week for staff and patients to enjoy.

 

Throughout the twentieth century, a culture of recreation and sport began to grow at the hospital. Staff and patients, together, participated in sports such as handball, soccer, snooker, camogie and football.

 

Patients and staff took part in sports days each year, as well as dances and music on special occasions, with music often provided by visiting bands, including Big Tom and the Mainliners.

 

From the 1950s, patients produced art and craft works, and took part in cookery and household management classes. 

 

Other recreational activities available at St. Davnet’s included the dramatic society, ‘St. Davnet’s Players’ – their first performance in 1962, of John B. Keane’s Sive, won trophies at the first County Monaghan Drama Festival.

 

 

A swimming pool was built on the hospital campus in the late 1960s. Despite these developments an ex-patient who was on the wards in the 1960s described the hospital as a very dull place to pass time, saying ‘the day be as long as broad in the wards’.

 

Occupational Therapy was introduced to the hospital in the 1970s. During the 1970s and 1980s, the grounds of the hospital were increasingly opened to the town, and patients began to visit the town to shop, to visit the post office and bank or to attend church services. Some patients were also afforded the opportunity of short breaks in places like Donegal and Waterford. This reflects the move towards care in the community, and the decline of the institution.