Fresh evidence has been uncovered of neglect at an institution in Dublin run by Church of Ireland evangelicals. Research has found that one child died every three weeks at the Bethany Home in Rathgar from 1935 to 1940.
The number of children who died as a result of neglect at the Bethany mother and baby home in Dublin is far greater than previously thought, new research has found.
Griffith College lecturer Niall Meehan, who discovered 40 unmarked Bethany Home graves at Mount Jerome cemetery at Harold's Cross earlier this year, has uncovered a further 179 graves that date from between 1922 and 1949. The new evidence is published in “History Ireland” magazine.
The Bethany Home was run by evangelical members of the Church of Ireland but had no formal connection with that church. It operated at Blackhall Place in Dublin from 1921-34 and at Orwell Road, Rathgar, until it closed in 1972.
It was also a place of detention for women convicted of petty theft, prostitution, infanticide and birth concealment. In 1935-36 the home was required to register child mortality, under the Maternity Act of 1934
In May at Mount Jerome cemetery, a group of Bethany's ageing survivors mourned the deaths of 40 of the home's child-inmates in 1935 and 1936.
Niall Meehan claims that when a Catholic charity alleged neglect, the State suppressed health needs and forced the home to stop admitting Catholics.
Mr Meehan said there are a further 28 Bethany Home residents whose bodies have not been found but which are not believed to be in Mount Jerome.
Mr Meehan said the State "did little or nothing" about reported increases in illness and mortality at the home during these years, despite it being brought to the attention of the then department of local government and public health by its own inspectors.
"The Irish State failed to do anything substantive about death, neglect and export of children in a home it inspected, to which its courts sent convicted women and young people," he writes in History Ireland.
"It misused its Maternity Act inspection regime to achieve merely a level sectarian playing field. The state then delayed providing financial resources throughout the 1940s, until recognition under the 1939 Public Assistance Act was achieved in 1948. Had it been otherwise lives might have been spared and life experiences improved."
Mr Meehan has also found that Bethany Home sent children to England to similar organisations, and also to Barnardos and the Salvation Army. A number of residents were also sent for adoption to the United States in the 1950s.
The Bethany House Survivors' Group comprising of former residents at the home, has reiterated its call for the Government to include its members in the redress scheme for victims of institutional abuse.
The Department of Education has previously said that children were admitted to Bethany on a voluntary basis and therefore do not qualify for the redress scheme.
Naill Meehan also reports that Minister Dermot Ahern's Secretary had written to him saying that in 1945 the Department of Justice designated the home as a place of detention for female Protestant children and young persons.
A Survivors' representative has written to the Taoiseach that this gives the lie to the Department of Education's claim that children were in the home in a voluntary capacity and therefore do not qualify for payments under the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme.
Survivors say the disclosure strengthens their case to be compensated under the State's Redress Scheme.
For a survivor’s account see “Hannah’s Shame - A true life story” at:
www.alliancesupport.org/news/archives/001807.html
and an account by Derek Leinster, a former resident at:
www.alliancesupport.org/news/archives/003031.html
www.indymedia.ie/article/92984
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