|
Bethany Home (sometimes called Bethany House or Bethany Mother and Child Home) was a residential home in Dublin, Ireland mainly for women of the Protestant faith, who were convicted of petty theft, prostitution, infanticide, as well as women who were pregnant out of wedlock, and the children of these women. The home was run by evangelical Protestants, mainly (up to the 1960s) members of the Church of Ireland. It catered to "fallen women" and operated in Blackhall Place, Dublin (1921–34), and in Orwell Road, Rathgar (1934–72), until its closure. The home sent some children to Northern Ireland, England, and to the United States. ==History== Bethany House was founded in Blackhall Place in Dublin in 1921, and moved to Orwell Road, Rathgar in 1934, where it was based until it was closed in 1972.〔(Meehan, Neil. ''Presentation on Bethany Home Westbank Orphanage for Ministers, MLAs'', Belfast, 22 July 2013 )〕 On opening the home in May 1922 the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg, declared Bethany "a door of hope for fallen women". The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral presided over the first evening meeting setting up the Home, and Church of Ireland Prison Mission to Women with Convictions charity was incorporated into the Bethany Home〔(Justice needed for the survivors of and victims of Bethany House abuse ) by Victoria White, Irish Examiner, Thursday, 3 January 2013.〕 Following the passage of the Registration of Maternity Homes Act, 1934, Bethany House became subject to inspection by the Department of Local Government and Public Health.〔(REGISTRATION OF MATERNITY HOMES ACT, 1934 ) Irish Statute Book.〕 Former residents have claimed that as children they were victims of physical abuse and neglect while resident in the home, and that this accounted for the high mortality rate amongst children in the institution.〔(''Starved to Death'' by Galen English, ''Irish Daily Mail'', 10 September 2010. )〕 It is claimed that while the home was not run by the Church of Ireland, it was affiliated through clerical and lay members sitting on the home's managing committee, church fundraising and reference of unwed pregnant women to the home by clergy. In a letter dated 9 April 1945 from the Church of Ireland's then Archbishop of Dublin, Arthur William Barton, to Gerald Boland, then Minister for Justice, he described the home as "a suitable place for Protestant girls on remand".〔("Bethany Home Church of Ireland link claimed" ), BBC website, 8 October 2010.〕 Bethany Home was already a place recognised by the courts as a place of detention.〔(The Irish State & the Bethany Home by Niall Meehan, submission to Ruairi Quinn, Minister for Education, Leinster House, 24 May 2011, by delegation consisting of Derek Leinster, Noleen Belton, Patrick Anderson McQuoid, Niall Meehan, Joe Costello TD )〕〔(Letter links Church of Ireland to horror home, by Ian Carey, Irish Daily Mail, 8 October 2010 )〕 Critical reports on nursed out Bethany children were compiled in January 1939 by inspectors in the Department of Local Government and Public Health. In August 1939, newspapers reported critical discussion at the Rathdown Board of Guardians on hospitalised Bethany children. The government's Deputy Chief Medical Adviser, Winslow Sterling Berry, visited the home on three occasions in 1939, once in February and twice in October. In February, Sterling Berry reversed an inspection report on a child said to have been in a "dying condition". He stated in October, "it is well recognised that a large number of illegitimate children are delicate and marasmic from their birth." Sterling Berry observed that the home's most objectionable feature was admittance of Roman Catholics into a proselytising institution. He successfully pressured Bethany Home's managing committee into ceasing the admission of Roman Catholics. The Residential Secretary, Hettie Walker, claimed in 1940 that the measure was only agreed to because of a threat of refusal of funding under new legislation.〔(The Irish State & the Bethany Home by Niall Meehan, submission to Ruairi Quinn, Minister for Education, Leinster House, 24 May 2011, by delegation consisting of Derek Leinster, Noleen Belton, Patrick Anderson McQuoid, Niall Meehan, Joe Costello TD )〕 The superintendent of the Church of Ireland's Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics, the Revd T.C. Hammond, was a member of the home's managing committee.〔(Church & State and The Bethany Home by Niall Meehan, supplement to History Ireland, Vol 18, No 5, September–October 2010, pp. 5, 8 )〕 In the 1950s Bethany Home facilitated the adoption of children by Protestant families in the United States, while some sent to Bernardo's in England may have been sent on to Australia.〔(Church & State and The Bethany Home by Niall Meehan, supplement to History Ireland, Vol 18, No 5, September–October 2010 ), pp. 4–7〕 During the 1960s children were transferred from the Bethany Home to the Protestant evangelical Westbank Orphanage in Greystones (which closed in 1998), from which few children were adopted.〔 (Inquiry into 'exploitation' of orphans, letter by former Bethany, Westbank residents, Derek Leinster, Sydney Herdman, Colm Begley, Helen McCarthy Fitzpatrick, Irish Times, Thursday, 17 May 2012 )〕〔 (Protestant abuse history has been swept under the carpet, by Victoria White, Irish Examiner, Thursday, 5 July 2012 )〕 Bethany Home closed in 1972. In 1974, its assets were distributed to two other Church of Ireland run institutions, 85% to the Church of Ireland, Magdalen Home (founded by Lady Arabella Denny) on Leeson Street and 15% to Miss Carr's Home, North Circular Road, Dublin.〔(RUAIRI QUINN wrong to deny redress to Bethany Home survivors – here is the evidence )〕 The records of the Bethany Home are held by PACT (the Protestant adoption service), along with records of other Church of Ireland social services.〔(PACT Records and Archives )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bethany Home」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|
