Carted off to 'lunatic asylums' and denied any dignity in death ..we have to put that right

Campaigners' great-gran buried in unmarked grave

- BY LOUISE WALSH

RESPECTS. Julia's new headstone

CAMPAIGNERS including musician Bressie want the names of over 50,000 patients of so-called 'lunatic asylums' who lie in unmarked graves released and honoured on memorials.

Relatives who spent 14 years searching for their great-grandmother's resting place at St Loman's Hospital in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, have now extended their efforts across the country.

So far, 14 families of the 1,300 in Mullingar have claimed the graves, whose simple white crosses were removed in 2011.

Now many of the graves, interred between 1907 and 1970, lie unmarked in an overgrown area.

Kathy Crinion and her cousin Julianne Clarke helped found the website 'Friends of Julie' to encourage other families to reach out.

Julianne said: "This started when Kathy and myself went to exhume our great-grandmother Julia Leonard who was committed by her husband when she was 30 and pregnant.