Making the
Walls Porous
A narrative history of the specialist practice that is psychiatric/mental health nursing in twentieth-century Ireland, told through the voices of the nurses who pioneered and shaped the profession from inside.
By Dr. Eithne Cusack
History teaches us lessons. This history is not only an examination of our past, but also an explanation of our present.
The untold stories of nurses who worked behind Ireland’s institutional walls.
At a time when Ireland had the world’s highest rate of psychiatric hospitalisation, generations of nurses worked inside its institutions. Their stories have been missing from the public record. Until now.
Drawing on a research doctorate and firsthand testimony from the nurses who worked from the 1940s to the close of the twentieth century, this book explores daily life inside Irish psychiatric institutions — for patients, and for the nurses who cared for them. It examines the conditions, the treatments, the challenges, the silences, and the complex human relationships that defined an era.
This is a social history as much as a professional one. It honours the often-overlooked craft of mental health nursing and offers a clear-eyed mirror to how society has treated, regarded and valued some of its most vulnerable people.
Who this book is for
Nurses and healthcare professionals
This book is essential reading for psychiatric/mental health nurses, students, educators, healthcare professionals, as well as for nurses registered in all of the divisions of the nursing register, who want to understand the history of the profession, and the people who shaped it from inside Ireland's psychiatric institutions.
Historians and Researchers
For readers interested in twentieth-century Ireland, asylums, institutional life, healthcare history and the social structures that shaped a generation. Based on doctoral research and firsthand accounts, the book offers a rare record of daily life, care and nursing practice within these institutions.
Individuals with a Personal Connection
For anyone who had a family member or neighbour admitted to these asylums and mental hospitals, for parents, relatives who lived or worked in Ireland's psychiatric institutions. The book offers a way to better understand the system of care and what daily life was like behind those walls, for both patients and nurses.
General readers
For anyone curious about a part of Irish history that shaped our current healthcare services and our understanding of mental health and mental illnesses. This is a story of institutions, care, vulnerability and change, and of the nurses who brought skill, humanity and hope to a system shaped by the limits of its time.
About the author
Eithne Cusack, EdD, RPN, RGN, FFNRCSI
MSc Systemic Family Therapy, MSc Healthcare Management,
H. Dip Professional Supervision, PG Dip in Executive Coaching
Eithne has worked in nursing for her entire career, spanning more than 40 years. She possesses extensive knowledge and expertise in nursing, healthcare and mental health. She has held senior management and leadership positions in the public and voluntary health sectors at regional, area and national levels.
Her experience encompasses roles at every level of the profession, including clinical practice, management, leadership, policy and strategy, planning, commissioning, education and training.
She is the author of numerous published nursing and health-related reports and journal articles, and has presented at national and international conferences. Her professional interests include nursing professional development, leadership, professional supervision and reflective practice, as well as personal and executive coaching. She firmly believes that fostering and developing staff is essential to innovation, transformation, creativity and dynamism within nursing and healthcare.
Contact Eithne
Whether you have a question about the book or a story to share, please get in touch.