Tragic brother was locked in institutions for 57 years

Sister demands to be told why her tragic brother was locked in institutions for 57 years

Tuesday February 20th 2007

SIXTY-YEAR-OLD Christy Smith was buried yesterday after a life which can only be described as a tragedy.

In a life lived over six decades, Christy enjoyed fewer than three years of freedom - and these were spent living rough on the cold streets of Cork.

Now, his sister, Mary, who traced her brother 17 years ago, thanks to an appeal on the Gerry Ryan 2FM show, has demanded answers from the Government and health authorities over why her brother spent practically his entire life in psychiatric care.

His institutional childhood was divided between mother-and-babies homes and brutal industrial schools.

"My brother's life was stolen from him - he never had a chance," Mary said last night.

"He never had any quality of life - in fact, his life was destroyed before it had even started," she said.

Mary - who now lives in Dublin - is particularly concerned over why Christy was placed in psychiatric care in 1966 and why no specific details, as were then required under the Mental Health Act, were recorded about his psychiatric condition.

Committal

Similarly, she had never been able to trace the committal form for her brother.

Mary raised the matter two years ago with Health Minister Mary Harney and the Health Service Executive were asked to review the case.

She wrote to more than 30 TDs to raise her brother's plight - and even wrote to Ulster MEP Ian Paisley.

But Christy died on Friday - after never having been released from care except for a brief period in a West Cork hostel.

Last night, the HSE stressed that it does not comment on individual cases as a matter of policy.

The HSE also stressed that it is fully committed to a community-focused mental healthcare system.

Sadly, for Christy Smith it is now too late.

Christy was born in a Cork mother-and-babies home to a 14-year-old girl in 1946.

When his mother gave birth to a second child - a daughter - five years later she was sent to a psychiatric hospital where she spent her remaining 14 years, dying at just 32. She was ultimately buried in a pauper's plot in 1964, just two years before Christy was committed.

At five years of age, Christy was to begin a tough existence in industrial schools.

He was beaten, traumatised and treated with shocking neglect.

Boys at one of the schools he was sent to often had to forage with pigs for food during the winter months.

Cork mental health campaigner and Cork North Central general election candidate, John McCarthy, said Christy's tragic story highlights the terrible stigma which is attached to mental illness in Ireland.

"I have never come across a more heart-breaking story than that of Christy Smith. This awful story perfectly highlights the terrible treatment of people with mental health problems," he said.

At 17 years, Christy was sent to work for a farmer in North Cork - and was locked into a shed at night with the animals.

Nine months later, he ran away only to spend two years living rough on the streets of Cork.

In 1966, he was brought by gardai to a Cork psychiatric hospital for treatment as a temporary patient. But he was never again to leave a psychiatric institution alive.

Christy died on February 16 last - and was buried yesterday at St Mary's Cemetery, Curraghkippane, Cork, close by the pauper's plot where his mother lies.

Ralph Riegel

� Irish Independent