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PB July-August 2023 July-August 2023 33
T
his is the real story of my brother
Christopher Smith.
Christy was born in Bessborough
Mother and Baby Home, Cork.
When he was six, a priest in the
town of New Market, County Cork gave orders for
my brother to be put into an Industrial School as
our mother, Eileen, had got pregnant with me. He
was raped before being put out to work for a local
farmer. My mother was eventually put in what
was then known as an asylum, a mental home. I
too was placed in an Industrial School. I didn’t
know Christy existed until I was 27 when
someone I was working with in a factory in Dublin
told me. Looking back, it was already far too late.
When my brother was 19 and had become
homeless the Garda had him too placed in a
mental home, after they found him on the
streets; and after three years I tracked him down
in a basement there. Christy had never had
another visitor. You can imagine the responsibility
on me. It never went away.
By Mary Smith
far advanced in both eyes. As I could not get him
into a hospital, I contacted Minister Micheál
Martin and my own TD, Eoin Ryan TD. With the
results, I had both of my brothers cataracts
removed.
Later, I found my brother was going to the toilet
a lot and told the sta. When I asked for my
brother to be admitted to hospital because he
was complaining with pains in his stomach this
was refused. There must have been an
explanation but if there was I never understood
it.
I asked them to call for an ambulance for my
brother which was refused. So I went to the
Medical Council and made a complaint for
medical malpractice but they found nothing. It
was around this time my brother collapsed.
I was so desperate, I started contacting a lot
of politicians, going to the papers and radio to
help to save my brother’s life as it seemed to me
he was being neglected.
My brother was then out in Cork University
Hospital. After he returned to St Stephen’s, my
brother was isolated and my visits were
Lest
we
forget
Church and State ruined
many lives, with their
prejudices and institutions,
including those of people
who survive
POLITICS
Christy had not been certified and at all times
it was maintained that his presence was
voluntarily which I found meaningless. He was
drugged out for diabetes, his mental problems
and later for kidney failure. In those first years
visiting him, I was often told to leave the hospital
for making a commotion and to leave “that man”,
being my brother, alone. I then showed them
both birth certificates of both me and my brother.
Three months later my brother was transferred
to St Stephen’s Hospital, Glanmire, Co. Cork.
I tried so hard to have my brother released but
they refused to allow him to be released
irrespective of the attempts I made. My brother
was drugged to the eyeballs and begged me to
have him released from there..
I frequently travelled from Dublin to Cork to
visit him. He was all I had in the world.
I attended Carthage Conlon, solicitor of 21
Parliament Street, Dublin 2, who arranged for my
brother to be made a ward of court.
On one of my visits I noticed Christy was going
blind. I asked the sta for an optician to examine
him. It was confirmed my brother had cataracts
The rel story of my lost brother, Christy,
nd me
34 July-August 2023 July-August 2023 PB
supervised by the nurses. I was calling
ambulances as my brother was screaming, “I am
in pain, I am dying, help me, get me out, I am
doing my penance”. Ambulances were refused.
I say on one particular visit I saw my brother
dragged down a corridor, kicking his legs as he
refused to go for his drugs in front of me.
In an interview in the Daily Mirror in 2005 I was
prominently quoted saying ”help my brother
before he dies”.
In May 2006, Eugene Morgan arranged a
meeting with me at the hospital about my
brother. He was concerned. I got a list of rules. I
had to be careful what food I brought for my
brother as it could interfered with his diet or
medicines, I couldn’t stay so long it interfered
with normal nursing routines, and if I was talking
about Christy’s condition to sta I had to do it
away from him.
Two doctors at Cork University Hospital – Dr
Brian Whelan and Dr Miriam O’Sullivan, a
Registrar, confirmed my brother was suering
with malnutrition.
My brother was being given Gaviscon with
drugs. He was screaming and tearing himself
when he drank it. I asked Dr O’Sullivan to have it
analysed and she immediately had it stopped.
She said she would keep him in Cork University
Hospital. He was placed in an isolated ward as
he was supposed to have TB. The food was left
outside the door and nobody was allowed in. I
brought food into him as I was staying in Cork.
I was still telling them my brother did not want
to stay in St Stephen’s Hospital. Their attitude
was he was very happy and did not want to leave
and yet I was sending her the photos which
identified his weight loss.
My brother was placed in Unit 5 Ward in St
Stephen’s Hospital. This consisted of one
corridor, windows and doors locked. Barbed wire
around the walls. Each time I visited my brother
they took him away. They told me they were
feeding him and when he was returned – he told
me he got the needle and no food and he would
be conked out. He was losing weight very rapidly
and he had an accident that split his head open.
His breathing was so bad, bringing up a lot of
blood. When I asked for an ambulance again to
get him to an emergency ward, it was denied.
They felt they could deal with him in St Stephen’s.
I asked for him to be given a nebuliser. I
requested for him to be hospitalised as I could
see time was running out for my brother. In
January 2007, a psychiatrist at St Stephen’s
Hospital told me my brother was there voluntarily
and he suered with depression. I asked her to
ask him directly whether or not he wanted to stay
there. My brother was so drugged, he could not
respond when I asked him the question. I had to
keep repeating the question, asking Christy,
“Do you want out?”. He said, “I do”. I recorded
this and gave it to the Garda. I then asked the
psychiatrist to get him into a hospital. She said
I could contact her at any time I wished and
walked away.
It seemed to me the mental home had to treat
him as if he had no personality. For me, it was so
personal: I needed to get him treatment, to
escape the limitations of the mental-hospital
regime. But that was not the way psychiatric
medicine worked at the time.
In February 2007 I met Ryan Tubridy from RTÉ
with Paul Russell, his producer, at Heuston
Station. I told him my brother had not long to live
as he was starving to death. Ryan invited me to
contact the station and said he would get him out
of St Stephen’s. My partner said to forget it and
to leave it with someone else. Years earlier in
1990, when I was trying to locate Christy, I had
bumped into Gerry Ryan and explained the story.
In Ireland it’s only a heartbeat from celebrities to
people abused in institutional care.
Later in February 2007, I rang the hospital to
speak to my brother but he was not able to
breathe. I asked for an ambulance to be called
but they said they could not wave a magic wand.
The next day I got a call that my brother was
dead.
I went to the Garda for someone to be
prosecuted but nobody was ever prosecuted.
Sixteen years later, I remain traumatised.
Christy was in care from his earliest childhood
and in a mental home for 40 years. My life, the
life of my mother and the life of Christy, my
brother, were ruined by the Church and State.
Their actions outlive those who did this to us.
Guidlines for Mry Smith when
visiting her brother
HSE clims to be providing
pproprite medicl cre
