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Later Life and Death

After her retirement from Grangegorman in January 1968, Dr. Eveleen O’Brien was given the role of Governor of the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum. She held onto this position until 1981. A Resident Physician at the same hospital in 1968, Dr. Micheal Reynolds, noted that she “appeared as a quite old-looking, small-statured, spare, rather frail lady, perhaps even beyond retirement age.”Despite her old age, Dr.O Brien was well respected and admired in the medical community. The Clinical Director of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum met Dr. O’Brien in 1971 and followed her advice regarding his profession, stating that “I know that Evelyn’s sound advice encouraged me to work in that service”.

Dr. O Brien never ended up married, although this was normal for female doctors in Ireland in the twentieth century. O’Brien lived with Helena Molony for a majority of her adult life. Molony was an activist who was present during the worker’s campaign in the Dublin lockout. The pair met while O’Brien was attending to Molony as her doctor in Grangegorman. They formed a close relationship with one another, and they both lived together on North Circular Road in Dublin until 1966, after which the pair lived on Strand Road in Sutton. Molony passed away in 1967 in their shared home. Dr. O Brien passed away 14 years later on the 31st of July, 1981 in Sutton, Dublin. She was 80 years old at the time of her passing. In her will, O’Brien gave a large section of her estate to be held by the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin “for such charities devoted exclusively to the needs of necessitous, secular unmarried women of Ireland from and over the age of 65 years”. Dr. Eveleen O’Brien is remembered as an impactful female psychiatrist with a lasting legacy.