Introduction
“This institution is, at this moment, passing through a crisis without parallel in its history. For the past ten days Influenza in a most virulent and intensified form has stricken down the staff and patients. Up to this moment, close on one hundred male patients and about thirty female patients have contracted the disease, while more than three fourths of the staff are laid up, and are wholly incapacitated from duty. One of the female night attendants has this morning, I deeply regret to say, passed away. Fourteen male patients have so far, lost their lives, chiefly from the result of septic pneumonia and many others are dangerously ill. With nearly 150 persons ill and with less than one fourth of the staff available to look after them not to mention the supervision of 800 inmates, the Committee will recognize the tremendous difficulties and the dangers that have to be faced by the few who are left to do duty…I ask the Committee to take due note of the wholly unprecedented circumstances, as in the event of any unfortunate incident occurring I could hardly hold any one liable, nor could I accept responsibility myself” (F.C. Ellison Castlebar 1918).
The above quotation is dated 15th November 1918 and is taken from the monthly report by the Resident Medical Superintendent F.C.Ellison to the Management Committee of St Mary’s Lunatic Asylum, Castlebar. It encapsulates the terrifying nature of the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-19. Click here to see a chart relating to hospital mortality. The flu claimed approximately fifty million lives, worldwide, in less than one year (Honigsbaum, 2009) (this is debated, some estimate one hundred million lives lost (Barry, 2009)) and flu mortality by far exceeded the number killed in the carnage of the recent First World War (Kolata, 1999). On the island of Ireland the flu claimed more lives than the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War combined (Dorney J. , 2012). However, while the First World War and the struggle for independence in Ireland have inspired research and scholarship that consists of thousands of published works, the story of the Spanish Flu has been a historical footnote by comparison (Foley, 2011). Click here to see charts relating to fatalities in Ireland Please click here to leave a comment on the blog page, if you have a Spanish Flu story. |
St Mary's Castlebar c.2014 (GMIT Campus) apologies for the scaffolding!
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