Joseph Lalor (1811 – 18 August 1886) was a pioneering Irish mental health administrator and a reforming superintendent of the Richmond District Asylum for 29 years (1857–1886).
[1] Joseph was born in 1811 at Cascade House, Freshford, County Kilkenny,[2] the fourth and youngest son of Richard Lalor (c. 1760 – 1823), a prominent local landholder, and Mary Carroll.
[5][6][7] Joseph Lalor was reported as attending a meeting in favour of the Repeal Movement in 1830 at Freshford with his brothers William and Florence in 1830[8] and as contributing to 'Repeal Rent' to support the campaign in the 1840s.
[17] In 1857, Lalor was appointed the Resident Medical Superintendent of the Richmond District Lunatic Asylum in Dublin, Ireland's largest with over 600 inmates (rising to over 1100 by 1885).
In Richmond, he has full scope for his undoubted genius and for the human projects which he both conceived and put into execution with a decision of character and a perseverance absolutely necessary in one holding his position ...