Girls sent to Bethany Home ‘as punishment’

Northern Protestants who became pregnant outside of marriage were sent to Dublin’s Bethany Home "as a punishment, to add to their shame and to hide the family problem," according to a support group representing the home’s survivors.

In a meeting with Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, yesterday, Bethany Survivors asked that the “traffic” in unmarried mothers over the border be examined as part of the proposed commission of investigation into the State’s mother and baby homes.

They also called for the 2002 Redress Act Scheme to be re-opened so that excluded institutions such as Bethany and other mother and baby homes could be included.