Madam, – Bethany Home survivors were surprised to read that the Church of Ireland has appealed to them to “disclose all information of allegations of abuse to the Government”. (Home News, October 9th) The only forum whereby this may be achieved is through the Schedule to the 2002 Redress Act. Former Bethany residents, like Magdalene survivors, are excluded from the Schedule by the very same Government.
It appears the church misread a recent offer from Minister of State, Seán Haughey to hear “allegations of abuse from any female committed to Bethany Home . . . on an individual basis”. The Bethany Survivors represents in the main children who were resident in a home in which unmarried mothers and women committed by the courts were resident. The offer excludes them, just as surely as it excludes the approximately 250 children who died in the Bethany Home.
The former Bethany Home children are used to being excluded. This is how they came to be born there. However, they would like it to stop.
Your report stated: “The church has made available all records relating to the home of which it has knowledge and has furnished copies of minute books for the home, in an effort to apply pressure on the Government. In its statement, the church said it has uncovered a letter dated April 1945 from a former archbishop of Dublin to a former minister for justice.” In fact, I asked the church for the Bethany Home minutes, which I had traced from a National Archives database to the Church of Ireland Library.
Initially the minutes were missing and had been removed from the library catalogue. They were found after about six weeks and I was permitted to read them. I released the letter, in which the archbishop nominated Bethany Home as suitable place of detention. The Department of Justice had given it to me.
If we were reliant at this stage last year on records of which the church "has knowledge", none would have been forthcoming. The church has been asked (again) to search though its archives for all correspondence relating to the Bethany Home. In 1955, the home corresponded with Mrs Odlum of Church of Ireland Social Services, expressing concern that Roman Catholics were appropriating babies of Protestant mothers. In 1964 Michael Viney's groundbreaking series of Irish Timesarticles on unmarried mothers mentioned that Church of Ireland Social Services used two "confidential" mother and baby homes. One was the Magdalen Home on Leeson Street, the other the Bethany Home. Perhaps that might be a good place to look through archival material. The newly-released 1945 letter indicates also that bishops and other clergy may also have written other letters. Perhaps the church could look though those files too.
Research might lead to more knowledge that could, potentially, be very helpful in applying pressure on the Government to reverse its cruel and unjust policy of continued exclusion of those who have been excluded all of their lives, so far. – Yours etc,
NIALL MEEHAN,
Faculty Head,
Journalism Media,
Griffith College Dublin,
South Circular Road,
Dublin 8.