&x22;Man and 5 children posed about felled tree in foreground.; in background extensive institutional building&x22; is County We

Today we have a carefully posed shot with boys sprinkled like raisins in a currant bun and a man, a teacher perhaps, sitting on a tree! In the background is what appears to be an enormous institutional type of building. I will be interested to see if we can identify this one... ....and indeed O Mac was relatively quick off the mark identifying the building as Saint Senan's Psychiatric Hospital, County Wexford. Also known as "Enniscorthy District Lunatic Asylum for the Insane Poor of Mind", it was opened in the 1860s, and there's a suggestion that this image was taken in the first decade(s) of its operation. Closed as a hospital within the last 5 years, viewing more recent photos of the building, one might be forgiven for thinking it had been shut for somewat longer. Photographers: Frederick Holland Mares, James Simonton Contributor: John Fortune Lawrence Collection: Stereo Pairs Photograph Collection Date: between ca. 1860-1883 NLI Ref: STP_1536 You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie