Even today people sometimes call it The Mental

For a generation, the hospital this is one of the old wings of has not been called "The Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases." That was on the big sign at the front up until say 35 years ago.

Its official name now is "The Waterford Hospital" named primarily for the road it is on and the river it is near; they are named in turn for for the part of Ireland many local families came from.

Most people do call it nowadays The Waterford, but you still hear The Mental.

The government has promised for decades to replace it with a more modern building but that hasn't happened yet. Not all of it is as old looking as this wing. In fact I had to raise my camera over my head and aim it out through a small pane of more-or-less clear glass in another wing, to get this picture. But this is one of the oldest wings, perhaps 125 years old, maybe as old as 170 years. I don't know.

A couple of the back wings have big open spaces lit by NE-facing windows, so I hope it'll all be saved for use by artists and actors and musicians.