Bethany exemption is unacceptable

The financial contribution from the Department of Justice towards the erection of a memorial headstone at Mount Jerome Cemetery in remembrance of those babies and children who died while in the care of the Bethany Home in Dublin is to be welcomed (Derek Leinster, Remembering Bethany, March 1).

However, this gesture is an insufficient response from a government which continues to deny its responsibility to the victims of this institution.

It appears the indignities and abuse heaped upon these children throughout their short lives is to be further endured by those few, like Derek, who managed to survive.

Most children born into the Ireland of today are unlikely to encounter the standards of neglect and abuse experienced by Derek.

It is unthinkable that they might find themselves ending up as de facto slaves in Magdalene laundries or as residents of institutions like Bethany Home.

Derek and others like him played no small part in exposing the degradation and physical and sexual abuse of child inmates incarcerated in Ireland’s child institutions.

That 222 babies and young children died in the Bethany Home in Dublin during the period 1922-1949 and lie unnamed and unloved in unmarked graves is so morally wrong it stains and blemishes the character of Ireland.

While acknowledging the attempts that have been made to heal the scars and wounds associated with institutional child abuse by way of the publication of the Ryan report, the State apology to victims and the setting-up of the redress scheme, I believe the exemption of the Bethany Home victims from the redress scheme is no longer defensible.

The Government must implement the substance of the 2012 Children’s Referendum as is their moral and constitutional obligation.

Tom Cooper

Templeogue

Dublin 6w