In 2011 Irish people would be horrified to know that Government officials deliberately misled surviving former residents of the Bethany Home, Dublin. The home took in non-Catholic unmarried mothers, their children, prostitutes and women convicted of various crimes between 1922-72.
Officials said the Bethany Home did not come under the jurisdiction of the Redress schedule for survivors of abuse, as it was a privately run mother and baby institution in which the state played no role. When corrected on this they changed the story that in order to qualify for inclusion children would have to be sent to a home by court order. I then pointed out that while there were 50 institutions where this was the case, there were over 100 on the schedule where that was not the case.
We had repeatedly for 13 years tried to get Bethany Home records from the archives, but were denied them by the same officials who have mislead and frustrated me. The HSE knew in 2004 that the Bethany Home came under their jurisdiction. After I obtained documents stating this unofficially in 2007, the HSE then notified Education that Bethany Home residents did indeed qualify for redress. We were turned down again
Then Professor James Smith of Boston College noted that non-Catholic girls were being sentenced in the Four Courts for Infanticide and given the option of serving their time in the Bethany Home. After that, Niall Meehan of Griffith College produced contemporary newspaper reports of other women sentenced to serve their time in Bethany.
In 2010 Meehan notified the Justice Dept that in 1945 Bethany’s Managing Committee wrote to Justice to ask why a court sent a child was to Bethany. More information was drip fed. Justice revealed that the then Minister of Justice Mr Boland asked Dublin C of I Archbishop, Dr Barton, to nominate a place of detention for C of I females up to the age of 17 years. Barton chose Bethany Home. Government officials would have been aware of these facts, but hid them until forced to reveal them. The Bethany Home is eminently qualified to be included in the Redress schedule. It is too late for the 220 Bethany children buried in unmarked graves, discovered in 2010. The state Deputy Chief Medical Adviser dismissed their deaths in 1939 with the observation that it was ‘well known’ that illegitimate children were ‘delicate’.
Why have Government officials denied non-Catholic children justice? There should be a public enquiry into this scandal.
The Government has paid out 1.2 billion mainly to Catholic survivors of abuse. The Irish Embassy in London is funded by the Irish Government to the tune of 800 million euros to help Irish groups. When Bethany survivors applied for funding, we were turned down. We also applied to Education for funding. Again we did not qualify. They went to great lengths in telling us how careful they had to be in giving this money out, so careful they were giving us none. That is not backed up by recent media reports. The state has thrown money unaccountably at this problem, trying to buy off its responsibility for running a dysfunctional sectarian health, education and welfare system. It is now ‘solving’ it in a sectarian manner, leaving non-Catholics outside the door.
We appeal to all people in a position to influence justice in the Irish Society. Victims of non-Catholic abuse should be treated equally and no differently than had they been abused as Catholics.
Derek Linster
Chairperson Bethany Survivors
derek.linster@talktalk.net
Angry you are so right I agree with everything you said which mirrors most Survivors thoughts, Thank You,
“” IRISH VICTIMS OF INSTITUTIONAL ABUSE STAY HIDDEN IN BRITAIN “”
MARK HENNESSEY, London Editor Irish Times.
FOR MONTHS Basil Geoghegan has trained for an attempt in early May on Mount Everest to raise funds for hundreds of British-based victims of institutional abuse, many of whom are now elderly and frail.
The investment banker, who is co-chair of the Ireland Fund of Great Britain, is bidding to raise £100,000 for the fund’s Forgotten Irish campaign, which helps to fund the work of a clutch of Irish voluntary organisations in London and elsewhere.
The former inmates of industrial schools “were not forced out just by economic reasons, they were survivors of institutional abuse”, he says. “They have got their own Everest to climb every day and that was one that was thrust upon them, not one for which they opted.”
However, the voluntary organisations dealing with them, many of which do receive funding from the Irish Government, are now struggling with cuts of 20 per cent and more in aid from British local authorities and health bodies.
The Catholic Church’s compensation to victims – some of it in cash, but most in properties – is not “filtering” through “as fast as it should”, he complains. “For these people, every day is one day closer to the end of their lives so we have got to address this faster.
“Irish taxpayers are hard pushed. My message is to the church, show me the money. That money has to get to the point of need now. When money goes into government, by the time it comes out the far end there is an awful lot less. The money from the church is the bit that seems to have disappeared into thin air when you look on the ground.”
Geoghegan believes that many abuse victims still remain hidden in the shadows, unknown even to the Residential Institutions Redress Board. “We disbelieve that people could not have heard about compensation by now, but Ireland to us means the Wicklow Mountains, or U2. For them, they left de Valera’s Ireland where they had their heads shoved down toilets.
“Fifty per cent of survivors emigrated, but it is difficult to be precise. Of course, they weren’t going to go to the Irish Centre. Anything Irish reminded them of a terrible past. I am not surprised that these people are only coming out over time.”
Geoghegan leaves for Nepal at the end of this month, where he hope to make an assault on Everest in early May.
In its most recent awards, the Ireland Fund of Great Britain gave out £260,000 in grants, but the voluntary body, which benefited in the past from donations from Anglo Irish Bank, among others, is struggling to keep up its figures.
Sheila Bailey, the fund’s executive director, says: “We have donors with not so much cash. Along with services that are being cut, the demands on our resources are greater than they have ever been. It is an unenviable situation but one that many charities find themselves in.”
Illustrating the scale of need among abuse victims alone, Bailey says one of the voluntary groups it supports, the London-Irish Survivors Outreach Service, deals with 400 cases every month.————————— Tuesday March 14th.————–
The above focus on the ill`s and deprivations through unremitting poverty on countless disenfranchised Irish in London, both CATHOLIC and PROTESTANT serves to underline the lack and care of the Irish State to those who sought refuge from the brutalities of the Irish Gulags, here in the UK and around the globe. Emigration and escape from a Country who had illegally imprisoned children to the !!care!! of monstrous religious sects resulted in tens of thousands fleeing from a system which had, and has, devastated so many childrens lives.
If the poverty stricken conditions afflicting so many former inmates of the Gulags here in London, of which I have first hand knowledge, is replicated throughtout the major cities of the UK, then indeed the problem is sufficently serious to warrant IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION by Enda Kennys new Government TO SEEK ANSWERS AS TO THE USAGE OF MONIES DESIGNATED FOR THESE UNFORTUNATES APPEARS TO GO NO FURTHER THAN SO CALLED “”GROUP LEADERS””. There is NO infrastructure nor means whereby explanation as to where these monies go can be ascertained, A WALL OF SILENCE SURROUNDS THE MONIES WHICH GO TO “GROUP LEADERS”.??
Enda Kenny MUST delegate somebody of authority to map the dispersal of these monies and give explanation of WHAT exactly happens to these monies once they find their way to these so called “”group leaders””.??
And while Edna Kenny is dealing with that particular problem, he should ALSO delegate a suitable representative from the Attorney Generals office to institute some sort of inquiry into this organisation called “”Right Of Place””, whose present head is busily ENGAGED IN THREATENING SURVIVORS WITH “”LEGAL ACTION”” WHO DARE QUESTION THE MOTIVES AND QUESTIONABLE “”APPOINTMENTS”” IN RECENT MONTHS OF WHOLLY UNSUITABLE APPLICANTS TO POSITIONS OF “”authority”” WHO FOREGO THE TRUE NEEDS OF SURVIVORS IN ORDER TO “”FORGE A CAREER”” BASED ON “”THEIR”” NEEDS, AND NOT THE NEEDS OF SURVIVORS. THIS WHOLESALE MISUSE OF TAXPAYERS MONEY TO “”FUND”” UNQUALIFIED AND UNELECTED AD-HOC AND HEATH ROBINSON FLY-BY-NIGHT-MERCHANTS HAS TO STOP, AND THE PROPER INTENT FOR THESE MONIES MUST GO TO WHOM THEY WERE INTENDED, THE SURVIVORS OF THE IRISH GULAGS. PRESENTLY WE SEE SO MUCH JUMPING ON THE BANDWAGON BY THESE PEOPLE WHO ENVISAGE A “”FUTURE”” FOR THEMSELVES BY THIS “”SUGGESTION”” OF A STATUTORY TRUST FUND WHICH WILL KEEP THEM IN CLOVER. WHAT SURVIVORS REQUIRE IS AN IMPARTIAL STRUCTURE WHEREBY THEIR URGENT NEEDS CAN BE MET, THEIR REASONABLE QUESTIONS ANSWERD WITHOUT THOSE QUESTIONS BEING “””CONSTRUED AS LIBELLOUS””” BY SOME ONE WHO HAS NEVER SEEN THE INSIDE OF AN IRISH GULAG NOR EXPERIENCED ITS BRUTALITIES, BUT SITS COSSETTED IN AN OFFICE SOMEWHERE THINKING UP “””FISHING EXPEDITIONS””” AT THE HARD PRESSED TAXPAYERS EXPENSE, WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY WHITTLING AWAY THE MONIES INTENDED FOR THE REAL NEEDS OF SURVIVORS ON SUCH IDIOTIC “””THERAPIES””.???
NOTHING CAN BE ACHIVED FOR SURVIVORS UNTIL SUCH TIME AS THESE SO CALLED “””group leaders”” ARE TAKEN OUT OF THE EQUATION, DISBANDED, BUT NOT BEFORE AUDITED ACCOUNTS OF THEIR ACTIVITIES OVER THE YEARS HAS BEEN PROVIDED TO THE RELEVANT AUTHORITIES.
I have seen and experienced more HELP AND SUPPORT in the last six months from the dedicated team at the Irish centre in Camden Town than I had experienced from so called “”group leaders”” over TEN YEARS, what I got from them were , LIES, DECEIT, TREACHERY, SLANDER, VILLIFICATION, THREATS, ETC, ETC, YOU NAME IT, I GOT IT. But thats another story.
What survivors require is their OWN DEDICATED LEGAL TEAM, IN IRELAND AND THE UK. THE HSE INVOLVEMRNT MUST GO, THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS INVOLVEMENT MUST GO, THE REDRESS BOARD INVOLVEMENT MUST GO, IF THE STATE INSISTS ON THRUSTING A STATUTORY TRUST FUND AS AN IMPOSITION AGAINST THE WISHES OF SURVIVORS, THEN ARGUEMENT MUST BE DEVELOPED ON A LEGAL BASIS TO CONTEST ANY COUNTER PRODUCTIVE EFFECTS TO THE ONGOING WELFARE OF SURVIVORS WHO FIND THEMSELVES SCATTERED AROUND THE GLOBE WHO WILL MOST CERTAINLY SUFFER FROM SUCH AN UNJUST IMPOSITION.
It may be to the BENEFIT of survivors if a precedent could be set by the State IMMEDIATELY to cease funding these groups in favour of these monies going to a an IMPARTIAL legal team backed up by TRAINED AND PROFESSIONAL negotiators to examine and SCRUITINISE this so called “”Statutory Trust Fund””, as to date NOTHING can be discovered as to its “possible” workings, how it will, or would operate, its “”trustee`s””, religious involvement, who would administer it, criteria required to BENEFIT from it, CERTAINLY IT COULD NOT OPERATE ON THE PREMISE OF “”FURTHER EDUCATION OR COUNSELLING””, SUCH REQUIREMENTS ARE ALREADY IN PLACE, AND SHORT SHRIFT SHOULD BE GIVEN TO THE LIKES OF THIS “””AILING”” CENTRE WHO “”AVOCATE”” EDUCATION AND “HEALING” AS THE WAY FORWARD.??? SUCH MANIC POLICIES ARE THE FRUITS OF A DISTURBED MIND.
There can be NO DOUBT that this vexing problem is going to run and run. The worth of “”doubters”” consists in their liability to persuasion, they can persuade, and can be persuaded by the disclosure of alternatives, the better and the worse. BUT IT REMAINS A FACT THAT NO PERSUASION NOR ALTERNATIVE CAN BE ACHIVED WHILE THIS HSE, EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AND THE REDRESS BOARD CONTINUE TO “”FUND”” THESE “”group leaders”” WHO CAUSE SO MUCH DISSENSION AND ARE THE ROOT CAUSE OF SO MUCH ANIXETY AND DISTRESS TO GENUINE SURVIVORS.
IT SHOULD NOT BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COURAGEOUS INDIVIDUALS TO RAISE MONIES THROUGH DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES SUCH AS CLIMBING EVEREST TO SUPPORT THE INSTITUTIONALLY ABUSED CHILDREN OF IRELAND. THAT, AND OTHER RESPONSIBILITES TO THE ABUSED SHOULD BE THE FIRST PRIORITY OF THIS NEW GOVERNMENT.
Its the abuse that matters and overshadows a whole lifetime.its about time that reliogion was left outside the door not victims of abuse. did thay work in there as well ????.
I know little of the Bethany Homes other than the prominence it is beginning to achive in regards to other homes and Institutions which existed alongside the mainstream “catholic” Gulags.
What I am now beginning to understand in regards to the Bethany Homes and its victims has become mired in a foggy demarcation line of “catholic and protestant” which appears to be creating an obstacle for these children, and a COP OUT for the State. The operative word being CHILDREN, no tags should be applied to them, CATHOLIC OR PROTESTANT, one way or the other, in that the dim apprehension of some great “principle” is apt to clothe itself with tremendous emotional force which deprives these children of some sort of JUSTICE under the Constitution. The word “Protestant” is such a driving force which generically, appears to be the insurmountable obstacle they face, ie, UNADULTERATED RACISM instituted through the BRUTAL POGROM of this catholic church through BRAINWASHING, in it`s schools, colleges , universities and of course its BRUTAL GULAGS where you could bring a “smile” to the face of your “teachers” by telling them you “hated” protestants, IT`S TRUE, ASK ANYBODY WHO WAS IN AN IRISH GULAG.??
The current usage can express the PRESENT doctrine of the reigning school of thought WHICH STILL EXISTS IN IRELAND TODAY and of certain accredited variations from it. As the catholic church in Ireland still expects its pew adherents to stick with the “brainwashing” expectation that only doctrines analogous to their aims should be expressed in THEIR “sacred” terms, thereby highlighting unconscious dogmatism TO A ONE SIZE FITS ALL “”religion”.!! In other words a “”CATHOLIC COUNTRY”” as envisaged by the brutal FIFTH COLUMNIST Mc Quaid.
There can be NO DOUBT that presently in Kildare Street,in conjunction with the Education department , the HSE and other organs of State determined to DENY these children JUSTICE, there is a school of confused thought which has its origin in obliviousness to the fact that the relevence of evidence linking the BETHANY HOMES and other Institutions to CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY is being dictated by a “”HAPPY SIMPLICATION”” FOR THE STATE BY “””” HEY, THEY ARE ONLY PROTESTANTS, WHO CARES””.??? I may be wrong, but thats the impression I`m getting from EVERYBODY legging it from this YET TO BE RESOLVED PROBLEM.