Insanity and the Insane in Post-Famine Ireland

Mark Finnane

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English

Routledge
01 December 2025

British & Irish history; Social & cultural history; Care of the mentally ill; Mental health services; History of medicine

Series: Routledge Revivals

Ireland was the location of the earliest comprehensive public provision for the care and control of the mentally ill. Between 1817 and 1870 the British government in Ireland directed the establishment of 22 district lunatic asylums throughout the country. Initially welcomed, discontent with the institutions grew with the growth of asylum admissions after the Famine and the failure of the asylum to restore more than a small proportion of inmates to society. Political battles between central and local government developed on the question of financial and administrative responsibility for the mentally ill. Originally published in 1981, this book examines the crisis through an analysis of the social function and context of the asylum. Institutionalisation of a growing proportion of the Irish population proceeded particularly through judicial committal. A law which had been intended only for the detention of the ‘dangerous lunatic’ became the routine mode of dealing with a variety of ills from alcoholism to domestic violence.

By: Mark Finnane
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781041166160
ISBN 10: 1041166168
Series: Routledge Revivals
Pages: 242
Publication Date: 01 December 2025
Audience: College/higher education , College/higher education , Further / Higher Education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1.Asylums for the Lunatic Poor, 1817-1867 2. The Politics of Lunatic Asylums, 1867–1914 3. The Law and the Insane 4. Insanity: The Contexts of Committal 5. The Asylum: Custody, Treatment, Control.

Mark Finnane is Professor of History at Griffith University, Australia. His doctoral research on mental illness, published in Insanity and the Insane in Post-Famine Ireland (1981), is the foundation for his later work on the history of policing, punishment and criminal justice in Australia and Ireland. His books include Police and government (1994), Punishment in Australian Society (1997) and (co-authored with Heather Douglas) Indigenous Crime and Settler Law: White Sovereignty after Empire (2012). Most recently he edited A Global History of Crime and Punishment: in the Age of Empire (2023). With the support of an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship (2013-18) he established and directs the Prosecution Project (https://prosecutionproject.griffith.edu.au/

Reviews for Insanity and the Insane in Post-Famine Ireland

Original Reviews of Insanity and the Insane in Post-Famine Ireland: ‘…a very useful survey of changing official responses to luncacy in nineteenth century Ireland…’ Andrew Scull, Journal of Social History, Volume 16, Issue 2 (1982) ‘…Finnane has made a valuable contribution to the growing study of Irish institutional history…’ David Fitzpatrick, Irish Historical Studies, Volume 23, Issue 91 (1983) ‘The book is well-written, well-researched and well-annotated…’ H.R. Rollin, British Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 140, Issue 4, (1982)