Viewers praise 'fascinating' interview with psychiatry professor on Tommy Tiernan Show

Viewers loved the “interesting” interview with Professor Brendan Kelly who appeared as the second guest on Saturday’s Tommy Tiernan Show.

Kelly, who is a professor of psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin and a clinical professor at UCD School of Medicine chatted to Tommy about his work and research, books, the history of mental hospitals in Ireland, and if Tommy should try magic mushrooms.

During the wide-ranging interview, Professor Kelly told Tommy about the many often forgotten people in mental hospitals in Ireland in the past.

“Even when you look at the numbers Tommy, in the 1950s Ireland had about 20,000 people in mental hospitals on a given day,” the professor told host Tommy Tiernan.

“And on that same day, if you put every other institution together, you know all of these terrible institutions we know about the mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries, industrial schools, orphanages, prisons, which have correctly been examined and criticised.

“But if you put them all together they don’t come to even half the number that were in our mental hospitals at any given time. There is an issue of scale as well.”

Viewers praised the interview

Viewers lauded the “interesting” professor for his insights on Saturday night’s show, with one writing: “Very interesting guy, the professor”.

While another added: “Epidemic of mental hospitals, not mental illness… Great insight by Brendan Kelly”. One more commented: “Fascinating interview! Love listening to someone so passionate and knowledgeable on their subject. And no filler or waffle… very interesting.”

A third penned: “Brendan Kelly has written some of the best and most important books of recent times. Just finished reading Resilience, incredible.”

A fourth commented: “’There’s a desire to medicalize unhappiness’, mind-blowing, but unfortunately true”.

One more added: “Fianna Fail and Fine Gael bear so much responsibility for most of the suffering of our people for 100 years, if they didn’t do it directly they allowed it to happen. Magdalenes, Asylums, prisons, the Artanes of this country.”

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