The Bethany Home - Deaths can’t be ignored

The Catholic hierarchy hid for far too long behind the shield of ignorance when confronted by accusations of child abuse.

Those denials, some genuine, did irreparable harm to Irish Catholicism.

It is surprising so, as was detailed on these pages yesterday, that the Church of Ireland is taking refuge in an equally weak and unconvincing defence in regard to the deaths of babies — at least 132 — at Dublin’s Bethany Home between 1935 and 1944.