Supernatural investigators who visited a psychiatric hospital described as a “vision of hell” claim to have captured a spooky image of a ghost peering out a window.
Paranormal Supernatural Investigations Ireland (PSI) recently visited Our Lady's Psychiatric Hospital in Ennis, home to thousands of patients between its opening in 1868 and closure in 2002.
The psychiatric hospital has been left abandoned for more than 20 years.
In a post on social media they shared a chilling photo from the derelict site, which they say is of a spirit who seemingly never left the asylum, the Irish Mirror reported.
The group’s post 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."
The investigator's added conditions at the asylum were "grim" and did not improve by the 1950's.
They added: "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 electroconvulsive therapy, while drug trials also took place there."
The group also shared a report made by an “inspector of mental hospitals in 1989”, showing as late as 1986 it housed more than 600 patients.
The report read: “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.”
The report also raised concerns about overcrowding and a lack of cleanliness.
One believer replied to the post: “I have been in this building a good few times and always had that strange feeling of some presence.
“I explored every inch of the place before it was completely vandalised.
“There is a ward on the same wing where there are four padded cells, that ward was definitely the most eerie.
“Well worth checking it out, but be careful inside as some parts are very unsafe”
Another said: “A lot of Innocent poor souls committed to these awful institutions.”
