Madam – In October 1939, the State’s deputy chief medical adviser, William Sterling Berry, entered Bethany Home and rationalised significant increases in sickness and mortality. He said, “it is well recognised that a large number of illegitimate children are delicate . . . from their birth and if removed from constant medical supervision and nursing attention often quickly deteriorate”.
With a stroke of his pen, Dr Berry undermined internally and externally expressed concerns about the home’s standards of care. Critical inspection reports on nursed-out children were dismissed, including in particular one recommending that a paid Bethany nurse mother be prosecuted. Berry’s inspector reported that the “suffering” child was in such a “low” condition that she called the dispensary doctor.
Not content with his day’s work in the exercise of his statutory duty, Berry went on to pen a “confidential, for Department’s own use” memo. In it the adviser recorded his efforts with regard to matters that were none of his business. He wrote, “I am meeting the Bethany Committee . . . to get them to consent to put an end to this most objectionable [proseltysing] feature of their work”.
In an appended note, he reported that a resolution passed at a special meeting on October 27th, 1939, in the inspector’s presence, “should satisfy any Roman Catholics concerned by Bethany’s proselytising activities”.
The resolution stated that the home would no longer admit Roman Catholics.
In January 1940, Bethany Home’s 1924-55 residential secretary Hester Anne Walker stated that the October 1939 resolution was passed due to “persistent, unfriendly . . . requirements of public officials” and a threat of exclusion from payments under the 1939 Public Assistance Act. This arose in a case in which the High Court declared the Bethany Home “sectarian”. The court reversed a ruling making Bethany the beneficiary of a defunct Protestant Women’s Shelter. Its charter stipulated that residents should not be subject to religious instruction or test.
While mortality in 1940 declined to two, it again rose steadily and achieved its 1940s height of 16 in 1944. After years of unsuccessful application, Bethany finally gained Public Assistance Act recognition in 1948, at which point the mortality and sickness rate tapered off permanently. Five children reportedly died between 1949 and 1963.
The statement of recognition noted pointedly, “for assistance, in the Bethany Home . . . of persons eligible for public assistance who are members of the Church of Ireland”.
An inspector, Alice H Litster, was instrumental in the decision as to whether Bethany should be granted recognition. In 1940 she noted that Walker was obliged by British police to retrieve an 8-month-old Bethany child sent to an English orphanage under inspection by the NSPCC.
In other words, in the late 1930s the State undermined publicly expressed concerns about neglect in the Bethany Home by imposing instead a level sectarian playing field. Allowing separate (and separated) Roman Catholic and Protestant control of welfare provision achieved the primary object of provision on the cheap, while it also ensured social control of the populations concerned by clerics and their more energetic supporters.
During the 1940s the withholding of funding to Bethany Home played a role in determining the number of children that would die or become seriously ill. This latter group included the Bethany campaign pioneer, Derek Leinster.
In addition to being a place for unmarried mothers and their children, the Bethany Home was also “a place of detention” for “non-Catholic” women and young people convicted of sometimes serious offences. Even leaving that latter point aside, the State is directly culpable in relation to conditions in the Bethany Home. – Yours, etc,
