On Navangate Street leading from the Newtown Monuments was the Navan Gate, the eastern gate in the town walls. Along the road on the southside a wall plaque commemorates this gate. Navan Gate was sometimes called Rogues Castle. A well known local rhyme went: “Kells for brogues, Navan for rogues and Trim for hanging the people” … The middle ages came to an end in three events in County Meath. In 1542 the Liberty was divided into two, Westmeath and Meath, setting up the county we know today, with county courts and county sheriff and its capital at Trim. Navan is now the capital.
I was asked if Haggard was a Viking Name after I had published a photograph of the Haggard Inn. In Meath and elsewhere ‘The Haggard’ frequently appears as a field name. This is almost always an area adjacent to the farm yard or what once was a farm yard. Traditionally this was an enclosed area on a farm for stacking hay, grain or other fodder. Collins English Dictionary describes Haggard as follows – “Haggard – (in Ireland and the Isle of Man) – an enclosure beside a farmhouse in which crops are stored. Related to old Norse Heygarthr, from hey hay + garthr yard.” It is most likely that this word has a Scandanavian or Norse origin.
The cast-iron post box on Haggard Street is an important feature in the social and urban fabric of the town. It is simple design, the lettering and crown are well executed. Though many cast-iron post boxes are being replaced by modern boxes, this one remains in use however, as the weather was so bad on Christmas Day, I did not get the opportunity to photograph it but I did photograph the equally interesting Post Box on the side wall of the Steps Pub near the Wellington Monument.
I actually visited the area on the next day but forgot to photograph the letterbox.
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JONATHAN SWIFT LIVED FOR A WHILE IN TRIM COUNTY MEATH
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin on 30th November 1667 and was given over to a nurse to be minded in England. He did not meet his mother again until he was 21 years old, this was not unusual in those days.
The cost of his education was funded by his uncle Godwin Swift. He was educated at Kilkenny College and Trinity College, Dublin where he was awarded a B.A. in 1689. He was appointed secretary to Sir William Temple and in 1692 received an M.A. at Hart Hall, Oxford.
In 1694 having taken holy orders, he became Prebend of Kilroot, County Antrim but soon tired of that isolated life and returned to Moor Park, Surrey in 1696.
Between 1696-1699 he wrote many books and like most of his writings they were all published anonymously. Although Swift was not a native of Meath he lived for some years in the Trim area, as Vicar of Laracor, near Trim together with Agher and Rathbeggan.
His best known book popularly called “Gullivers Travels” was published in 1726. He won immense popularity when his “Drapiers Letters” foiled a plan to foist on the Irish a new debased currency “Wood’s Halfpenny” – the patent for which had been obtained by bribery. His Modest Proposal “suggested that the people should be relieved by the sale of their numerous children as food for the rich”.
Swift was one of the most commanding intellects and writers of his day. His prose is unmatched for simple strength and clarity. His satire was savage in its mockery. His letters are among the best in English literature. He died on 19 October 1745 leaving £ 8,000 in his will for a home for the insane and to this end St. Patrick’s Hospital, Dublin was built.
Swift was buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.
St Patrick’s University Hospital is a teaching hospital at Kilmainham in Dublin. The building, which is bounded by Steeven’s Lane to the east, and Bow Lane West to the south, is managed by St Patrick’s Mental Health Services.
The hospital was founded with money bequeathed by the author Jonathan Swift following his death as “St. Patrick’s Hospital for Imbeciles”.
In March 1747, Dr. Steevens’ Hospital agreed to provide a small amount of land fronting Bow Lane for the purposes of building St. Patrick’s, however it was nearly three years afterwards before construction commenced, as the governors became involved in lengthy discussions over plans and architects. In considering the challenges of building such a hospital, it is important to remember that no such institution for housing lunatics had ever been built in Ireland before, and except for Bedlam in London, there was no comparable building in England either. The first step the governors agreed upon was for a high wall to be built around the site. This was achieved in 1747-8 at a cost of £146.
By 1753, the building (designed by George Semple) was completed, but the governors did not have the money to furnish it, to employ staff, or to maintain charity patients. Thus the building lay empty for another four years. On Monday 26 September 1757, the hospital finally admitted its first patients, consisting of six men and four women, referred to as ‘pauper lunaticks’ in hospital records.
In “Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift”, the poet anticipated his own death:
He gave the little Wealth he had,
To build a House for Fools and Mad: And shew’d by one satyric Touch, No Nation wanted it so much: That Kingdom he hath left his Debtor,
I wish it soon may have a Better.
Swift himself was declared of unsound mind by a Commission of Lunacy in 1742. Will Durant said of him: “He went a whole year without uttering a word.”
Richard Leeper, who was appointed Resident Medical Superintendent in 1899, introduced a series of important initiatives including providing work and leisure activities for the patients.[9] Norman Moore, who was appointed Resident Medical Superintendent in 1946, introduced occupational therapy, including crafts and farm work to the patients.
After the introduction of deinstitutionalisation in the late 1980s the hospital went into a period of decline. In 2008 the hospital announced the expansion of its outpatient services to a series of regional centres across Ireland. A mental health facility for teenagers known as the “Willow Grove Adolescent Inpatient Unit” opened at the hospital in October 2010.