The Madman's Hotel
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The Madman's Hotel
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Narrated by:
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Niall Breslin
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Written by:
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Niall Breslin
About this listen
In the heart of the rolling green hills of Ireland a huge abandoned psychiatric asylum looms large and holds its secrets close, until one family fights to find the truth about their long-lost great grandmother.
Presented by Irish mental health advocate Niall Breslin - this is the untold story of the quest to find patient Julia Leonard, alongside many others, who came to die in St Loman’s Hospital near Dublin. Why was Julia in St Loman’s? And what happened to her and other patients who found themselves within its walls? Niall joins the campaign to find out the truth, as he knows the hospital well… he grew up in the town next door.
As the family reach out for Niall’s help, along the way he reveals Ireland’s dark history with ‘lunatic asylums’ and why so many of its citizens were locked away in these forbidding institutions.
Will they find the woman they’re looking for? Will there be justice for her and the other souls once detained behind those walls? And what other secrets will be uncovered?
This series references themes around mental health and death. There is some strong language at times too. We also use historical language – some of which is inappropriate or offensive – but was normalised at the time and is important to include for context.
Episode 1 - Julia
Who was Julia Leonard? There are two sides to her story and how she ended up in St Loman’s psychiatric hospital. As her great granddaughter Julie Clarke begins a tireless quest to understand the tragedy of her family, presenter Niall Breslin faces his greatest fear as he starts to delve deep into Ireland’s dark history with ‘lunatic’ asylums.
Episode 2 - Seeking Asylum
So, what was life like for Julia within St Loman’s walls at the turn of the last century? While Niall helps Julie Clarke hunt for her great grandmother’s remains they uncover a disturbing family secret.
Episode 3 - Don’t Be Asking Questions
A family torn apart by an institution and community silence, finds each other and a common cause to return dignity to those buried at St Loman’s. A straightforward request for an exhumation turns into a bureaucratic quagmire and another mystery emerges.
Episode 4 - No Man’s Land
The dig for Julia’s remains throws up more questions than answers. One of Ireland’s leading archaeologists is called in to shine light on the graveyard’s past.
Episode 5 - Our Cross To Bear
This episode contains a reference to self-harm. Please take care when listening.
Niall reveals his own struggle with mental health growing up in the shadow of St Loman’s in Mullingar. Niall and Julie organise a community event to find more families searching for answers and someone unexpected gets in touch.
Episode 6 - The Power Of A Name
The community event attracts other families and Niall discovers other stories connected with the graveyard and St Loman’s. It’s time for Niall to get real answers from those in charge of the hospital today and Julie takes matters into her own hands.
Episode 7 - The ‘Decent Thing’
After years of trying to get the answers they need, Niall and Julie finally get acknowledgement and an explanation from the powers that be.
If you are affected by any of the themes in this series, the following organisations offer support and information:
- Samaritans - call 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie (or the Samaritans Welsh Language Line is 0808 164 0123)
- mind.org.uk
- Other international crisis helplines can be found at befrienders.org
- cruse.org.uk
- alustforlife.com
- friendsofjulia.com
Available in Dolby Atmos on Audible.
©2024 Audible Ltd. (P)2024 Audible Ltd.What listeners say about The Madman's Hotel
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Music Collector
- 2024-11-11
Truth is hard
A remarkable journey that because of “powers that be”(bureaucracy) might possibly
never be ended.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- tarylv
- 2024-12-14
Interesting
It’s more like listening to a story, than a book with its many inserts from podcasts, interviews, media, and phone calls. If you had a whole day with your favourite person who was explaining a sorted, aggravating, sometimes sad and disastrous tale of dealing with mental health and chronic illnesses on a trip in a Time Machine. I was hooked and heartbroken. Outraged and understanding. The information shared is fascinating, well researched and documented. Tip top
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2024-10-27
Very insightful and nuanced
Although there are some people in this tale who stood in the way, I appreciate that their perspectives were included. I don't agree with them, but it was very interesting to hear their motivations for resisting the release of records, etc.
I also find this journey very relatable as a Canadian. Many residential schools and "Indian Hospitals" have similar unmarked and mass graves that will need to be reckoned with, despite resistance, stigma, and naysayers.
Whew. Not a light read, but an important one.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jay Puga
- 2024-10-30
Phasing and narration
I loved the story and the phasing. It made me remeber one of those discovery/history channel documentaries from back in the 2000-2010
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MEW
- 2024-11-23
Interesting, Intellectual, and Emotional/Introspective!
This audiobook presents an enthralling tale covering topics relating to the history of Irish institutions, particularly the "insane" asylums, their conditions, practices, treatments, and social conditions relating to the procedures, perceptions, and attitudes of the public towards those affected by mental health conditions. The author follows and describes research and analysis that family members are conducting regarding the history of family members who were patients in the asylum. Burial grounds of the asylum are described, along with the archealogical searches for the remains of lost loved ones. Chapters Four and Five in particular were interesting in some of their discussion of the laws pertaining to dead bodies, the retrieval and completeness/lack of recorded detaild, or even redacted details of medical records from the asylum for "privacy reasons", even though you need to be a verified family member by lineage of birth and death certificates of the connected family members to be granted access to the medical records. Issues surrounding access to information on research regarding the history of the asylum is a concern, as many of the research reports that are completed by experts in the field(s) are privately commissioned, thereby the reports being left only in the hands of the parties who paid for the research. The author is also working on his PhD on the history of mental health interventions/therapies or treatment in the Irish asylums. I learned a lot! The description and detail are excellent and smooth to follow. This audiobook only took me a few days to finish, and I am normally somewhat od a slowpoke on most titles! I listened to the first four chapters and started the fifth chapter on the day I started reading the book, and left the Audible app that day excited to hear what else I would read and learn the next day! Highly recommend!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Marryah wilkins
- 2024-12-02
thought provoking and life changing.
This audiobook is a brilliant look into remembering those who walked before us and the importance of how one person can change so many lives along the way. this book was truly unbelievable and emotional, I will be coming back to register to this again and again!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- PW
- 2024-11-28
Moving and hopeful
A terrible and beautiful story from a terrible and beautiful country. Even though I don’t live in Ireland it gives me hope for mental health services around the world.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- greg h.
- 2024-11-10
is it fiction or non?
is it fiction or non? why is there a min word review? okay I'll change to 1 star for waisted time.
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