Paranormal Supernatural Investigation’s Ireland claims to have spotted a ghost whilst on a trip to an abandoned asylum in Co. Clare.
Taking to Facebook, the group shared their findings after travelling to the “dark and eerie” building.
The building has a troublesome past, with conditions within the asylum thought to have been “grim” at best.
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In a post on social media, the group posted a picture of a window in the building that appeared to show a small child’s face in the bottom right corner.
(Image: Paranormal Supernatural Investigation’s Ireland/Facebook)
It said: “A very interesting picture taken by ourselves at Ennis Asylum.
“Most people that know Our Lady’s Psychiatric Hospital in Ennis will all say the same. ‘It’s a very dark and eerie building that makes them feel very uncomfortable.’ Let’s be honest, people were admitted to this bleak building just to be out of mind and out of sight. Problems with family inheritance and relationships you could easily have ended up here.
“Conditions in the asylum were grim, and hadn’t improved by the 1950s. Many staff lived and raised their families in the hospital, which was a huge employer and purchaser of local produce at a time when economic activity was scarce in the town.
“Meanwhile, the custodial approach was in practice inside the building’s enormous grey walls, with terrible overcrowding documented with just inches between patients’ beds in a ward of 70.
“One nurse described it as a vision from hell. The hospital welcomed the advent of Electric Convulsive Therapy, while drug trials also took place there.”
The post continued: “Whilst conditions improved in the latter half of the 20th Century, a report by the Inspector of Mental Hospitals in 1989 still made for dismal reading: ‘Virtually all patients appeared to be unoccupied during the day; it seemed to us that many patients could have resettled in the community, with varying degrees of support, without too much difficulty’ said the inspector, who added that as late as 1986 there were 600 patients in the hospital.
“He also criticised that the ‘elderly and mentally handicapped’ were still being admitted to the hospital, and raised concerns over continuing overcrowding and a lack of cleanliness in its eight units.”
The group also explained how the hospital was officially closed in 2002, and the 16.65 acre site was purchased from Clare County Council in 2005 by hotelier Allen Flynn, builder Martin Fitzgibbon and Paul Talty for €5.2 million.
Planning permission was granted for the development of a four-star hotel. However, the plans never materialised.
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