Bethany Home (sometimes called Bethany House or Bethany Mother and Baby Home) was a residential home in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland mainly for Protestant unmarried mothers and their children, and also for Protestant women convicted of petty theft, prostitution, and infanticide. Most had a

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...

background. The home was run and managed by evangelical Protestants, who, in the main, were Plymouth Brethren,

or Presbyterian. It catered to "

fallen women "Fallen woman" is an archaic term which was used to describe a woman who has "lost her innocence", and fallen from the grace of God. In 19th-century Britain especially, the meaning came to be closely associated with the loss or surrender of a ...

" and operated in Blackhall Place, Dublin (1921–34), and then in Orwell Road, Rathgar (1934–72), until its closure. The home sent some children, some unaccompanied, to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, England, and to the United States.

History

Bethany Home was founded in 40

Blackhall Place Blackhall Place () is a street in Dublin, Ireland which was laid out in the 1780s on the area which previously formed Oxmantown green. It runs from Stoneybatter in the north to the River Liffey and the James Joyce Bridge. History Blackhall Pl ...

in Dublin in 1921 on the former site of the Dublin Prison Gate Mission, and moved in 1934 to Orwell Road,

Rathgar Rathgar () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (off ...

, where it was based until it was closed in 1972.Meehan, Niall. ''Presentation on Bethany Home Westbank Orphanage for Ministers, MLAs'', Belfast, 22 July 2013
/ref> On opening the home in May 1922 the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg, declared Bethany "a door of hope for fallen women". The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral presided over the first evening meeting setting up the Home. A Church of Ireland prison mission for women prisoners was incorporated into Bethany Home Following the passage of the Registration of Maternity Homes Act, 1934, after at first attempting to exempt itself from its provisions, Bethany Home became subject to inspection by the

Department of Local Government and Public Health The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage () is a department of the Government of Ireland. It is led by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Departmental team The official headquarters and ministerial office ...

. In a letter dated 9 April 1945 from the Church of Ireland's then Archbishop of Dublin, Arthur William Barton, to Gerald Boland, then Minister for Justice, he described the home as "a suitable place for Protestant girls on remand". Bethany Home was already a place recognised by the courts as a place of detention. Critical reports on nursed out Bethany children were compiled in January 1939 by inspectors in the Department of Local Government and Public Health. In August 1939, newspapers reported critical discussion at the Rathdown Board of Guardians on hospitalised Bethany children. The government's Deputy Chief Medical Adviser, Winslow Sterling Berry, visited the home on three occasions in 1939, once in February and twice in October. In February, Sterling Berry reversed an inspection report on a child said to have been in a "dying condition". The Report of the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Inquiry stated that the child died shortly afterwards. Sterling Berry rationalised mortality and illness in Bethany Home in October 1939 with, "it is well recognised that a large number of illegitimate children are delicate and marasmic from their birth." Sterling Berry observed that the home's most objectionable feature, that caused public controversy, was admittance of Roman Catholics into a proselytising institution. He successfully pressured Bethany Home's managing committee into ceasing the admission of Roman Catholics. The Residential Secretary, Hettie Walker, claimed in 1940 that the measure was only agreed to because of a threat of refusal of funding under new legislation.The high mortality rate that has occasioned controversy abated in 1940, but thereafter increased again up to 1944. Public scrutiny was not repeated. The superintendent of the Church of Ireland's Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics, the Revd T.C. Hammond, was a member of the home's managing committee until he departed for Australia in 1935. In the 1950s Bethany Home facilitated the adoption of children by Protestant families in the United States, while some sent to

Barnardo's Barnardo's is a global charity headquartered in Barkingside in the London Borough of Redbridge. It was founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each ye ...

in England may have been sent on to Australia. During the 1960s children were transferred from the Bethany Home to the Protestant evangelical

Westbank Orphanage Westbank Orphanage (sometimes called Westbank Protestant Orphanage or Westbank Children's Home) was a privately run Protestant orphanage in Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland, which closed in the 1990s. Westbank was originally founded as the ''Pro ...

in Greystones (which closed in 1998), from which few children were adopted. Children from the Bethany Home were also sent to the

Irish Church Mission The Irish Church Missions (ICM) is a conservative and semi-autonomous Anglican mission. It was founded in 1849 as The Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics chiefly by English Anglicans though with the backing and support of Church of Irelan ...

managed, ''Boley Home'', in Monkstown, Co. Dublin. Bethany Home closed in 1972. In 1974, its assets were distributed to two other Church of Ireland run institutions, 85% to the Church of Ireland, Magdalen Home (founded by Lady Arabella Denny) on Leeson Street and 15% to Miss Carr's Home, North Circular Road, Dublin. The records of the Bethany Home are held by PACT (the Protestant adoption service), along with records of other Church of Ireland social services.

Mount Jerome Graves

222 children died in Bethany Home between 1922–49 and 219 were buried in unmarked graves in

Mount Jerome Cemetery Mount Jerome Cemetery & Crematorium () is situated in Harold's Cross on the south side of Dublin, Ireland. Since its foundation in 1836, it has witnessed over 300,000 burials. Originally an exclusively Protestant cemetery, Roman Catholics have a ...

, Harold's Cross, Dublin. In 2010, a memorial meeting was held in the cemetery to remember them, in attendance were some former residents and relatives of residents along with public figures such as independent Senator David Norris, Joe Costello, TD, and Labour Equality spokeswoman, Kathleen Lynch.

Bethany Survivors Group

The Bethany Home Survivors Group campaigns for redress on behalf former residents. The group has called on the Church of Ireland to publicly support this demand and to acknowledge its role in the home. The group called on the Irish government and on the

Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) was one of a range of measures introduced by the Irish Government to investigate the extent and effects of abuse on children from 1936 onwards. Commencing its work in 1999, it was commonly known ...

, to permit Bethany Home to be included in the state redress scheme, The group's call to be added to the State redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse received political support. In May 2011 the survivors group met with the Church of Ireland's Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Michael Jackson, as part of their campaign. Former Bethany residents called for inclusion in an inquiry headed by Senator

Martin McAleese Martin McAleese (born 24 March 1951) is an Irish politician, dentist and accountant who has served as the Chancellor of Dublin City University since August 2011. He served as a Senator from 2011 to 2013, after being Nominated by the Taoiseach. ...

, into the state's role in the Magdalene Laundries, as similarities were drawn between both institutions and the needs of survivors. Irish Education Minister

Ruairi Quinn Ruairi Quinn (born 2 April 1946) is an Irish former Labour Party politician who served as Minister for Education and Skills from 2011 to 2014, Leader of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2002, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1989 to 1997, ...

, subsequently announced in June 2011 a refusal to include Bethany Home in the McAleese inquiry. In fact, the Deputy Minister, at the Ministry of Health, Kathleen Lynch was expelled from the Irish Parliament while trying to raise the issue of the survivors of Bethany House with the then minister of the center right party

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

Justice for Magdalenes (JFM) then opposed Quinn's announcement and supported the call for the inclusion of the Bethany Home in the McAleese Inquiry.Press Release: JFM supports Bethany "Survivors in rejecting Quinn's refusal to include Bethany Home survivors in redress scheme"
Justice for Magdalenes (JFM), 24 June 2011. On 16 September 2019, James Fenning and Paul Graham, were featured on BBC Newsline, about their fight for redress from the Irish Government.

Bethany born notables

Derek Leinster Derek is a masculine given name. It is the English language short form of Diederik, the Low Franconian form of the name Theodoric. Theodoric is an old Germanic name with an original meaning of "people-ruler" or "lead the people". Common variant ...

, writer (''Hannah's Shame'', 2005; ''Destiny Unknown'', 2008), chairperson, Bethany Survivor Group. *

Patrick Anderson-McQuoid Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

, artist who worked with the Irish Ballet Company in Cork City before founding and serving as artistic director of the Triskel Arts in that city; currently resident in

County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim, County Leitr ...

. *

Tom McClean Tom McClean is a veteran of both the Parachute Regiment and the Special Air Service (SAS) and is a survival expert who lived on the island of Rockall from 26 May to 4 July 1985 to affirm Britain's claim to it; this is the third longest human ...

, former British paratrooper, SAS/Parachute Regiment, who planted the

Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

on Rockall Island in 1985. He had been sent to an English orphanage at the age of 3. He authored ''Rough Passage'' (1983).

References

External links