Church should take Bethany lead

Please allow me to respond to Janet Maxwell, Church of Ireland Head of Communications (Letters, Jan 10). She wrote to you on the Protestant evangelical Bethany Home (that closed in 1972), in response to a column by Victoria White and a subsequent Examiner editorial.

Janet Maxwell states that the Church “has not ignored the issues raised by former residents”. But it has avoided doing very much about them. She refers to letters, two it appears, sent to ministers, and to two appeals for funds, over the course of three years.

I make two observations. First, the Church did not think to copy its two letters to former Bethany residents. We do not know what was in them. Second, the amount so far raised by the Church is, as far as I am aware, nothing. Funding is needed for a memorial to the 219 dead Bethany children in unmarked graves in Mount Jerome Cemetery. It might boost interest if senior clergy appeared at Mount Jerome Cemetery to express their sorrow in some suitable manner. Again, we issue the invitation.