Bethany function misrepresented

We wish to draw the Taoiseach’s attention to the inaccurate description used to define the Bethany Home, Dublin, when it is referred to as a ‘mother and baby home’ by Mr Kenny and some of his ministerial colleagues.

Ministers for education, health and justice have historically and continually, deliberately misrepresented the true function of the Bethany Home, by claiming that it was primarily a mother and baby home. However, children who were born in Bethany stayed there; they did not leave the home with their mothers.

While one of its roles was that of maternity, Bethany was much more than simply a mother and baby home. It was very much a children’s home, which not only kept (from birth) children up to the age of four years and more, it also admitted children from institutions all over Ireland. When mothers gave birth in the Bethany, they deserted, and left their children in the care of the State. We note that Section 44 of the Public Assistance Act, 1939, stipulates: (1) This section applies to a legitimate child both of whose parents are dead or who is deserted by both of its parents or (where one of its parents is dead) by its surviving parent, and to an illegitimate child whose mother is dead or who is deserted by its mother.