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

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, Ireland, mainly for women of the Protestant faith, who were convicted of petty theft, prostitution, infanticide, as well as women who were pregnant out of wedlock, and the children of these women. The home was run by evangelical Protestants, mainly (up to the 1960s) members of the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the sec ...

. 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 in Orwell Road, Rathgar (1934–72), until its closure. The home sent some children to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

, England, and to the United States.

History

Bethany House was founded in

Blackhall Place Blackhall Place () is a street in Dublin, Ireland. Location Blackhall Place runs from Stoneybatter in the north to the River Liffey and the James Joyce Bridge. History Blackhall Place, along the adjoining Blackhall Parade, Blackhall Street, ...

in Dublin in 1921, and moved in 1934 to Orwell Road,

Rathgar Rathgar (), is a suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It was originally a village which from 1862 was part of the township of Rathmines and Rathgar; it was absorbed by the growing city and became a suburb in 1930. It lies about three kilometres south of ...

, where it was based until it was closed in 1972.Meehan, Neil. ''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, and Church of Ireland Prison Mission to Women with Convictions charity was incorporated into the Bethany Home Following the passage of the Registration of Maternity Homes Act, 1934, Bethany House became subject to inspection by the Department of Local Government and Public Health. 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". He stated in October, "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 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 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. 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 British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each year running around 900 local services, aimed at helping these same group ...

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 Irela ...

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 is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, ...

, Harold's Cross, Dublin. In 2010, a memorial meeting was held in the cemetery to remember them, in attendance was 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, 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. 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, writer (''Hannah's Shame'', 2005; ''Destiny Unknown'', 2008), chairperson, Bethany Survivor Group. * Patrick Anderson-McQuoid, 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 ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...

. *

Tom McClean Tom McClean is a veteran of both the Parachute Regiment and the 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 occupancy of the isl ...

, 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. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

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