‘I’m so grateful I got to live these days’: A Ghost in the Throat author Doireann Ní Ghríofa on recovering from depression
Doireann Ní Ghríofa, acclaimed author of A Ghost in the Throat, discusses her new book Said the Dead, which explores the lives of patients at a former psychiatric hospital in Cork. Drawing from archival records and personal connection, she reflects on the women once confined there and her own struggles with mental health. Her work blends research, immersion, and memoir to recover forgotten histories and confront the proximity between her life and those who came before.
- ▪Doireann Ní Ghríofa wrote parts of her new book, Said the Dead, while parked outside the former Cork District Mental Hospital, now partially renovated into apartments.
- ▪She conducted extensive archival research on patient records, particularly focusing on the lives of women institutionalized at the hospital.
- ▪Ní Ghríofa has personally struggled with depression and reflects that, in another era, she might have been among those confined in such an institution.
- ▪She repeatedly entered the derelict building during renovations to connect physically with the environment she was writing about.
- ▪The hospital, originally known as the Eglinton Lunatic Asylum, operated for over a century before closing in 1992.
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Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Photograph: Clare KeoghView image in fullscreenDoireann Ní Ghríofa. Photograph: Clare KeoghHistory booksInterview‘I’m so grateful I got to live these days’: A Ghost in the Throat author Doireann Ní Ghríofa on recovering from depressionAlex ClarkThe acclaimed author and poet talks about her new book, telling the true stories of patients at a derelict Victorian psychiatric hospital – a place in which she might have found herself at a different timeSat 16 May 2026 04.01 EDTSharePrefer the Guardian on GoogleDoireann Ní Ghríofa wrote much of her first book of prose, A Ghost in the Throat, sitting in her car on the top floor of a multistorey car park, having dropped her children off at school in Cork city.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at The Guardian — Books.
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