The Irish Government has been accused of discriminating against Protestants who were mistreated at a children’s home by failing to award any compensation.
Sara Greer writes on Ireland.ie:
Between 1922 and 1949, up to 219 children born at the Bethany mother-and-baby centre in Dublin are known to have died.
Derek Linster, survivor and campaigner, said many were victims or starvation and lack of care.
“Our Government is spending €1.3 billion on helping the Catholic abused. It is sectarian but it was done in a way that would not look like that,” Mr Linster said.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter is considering calls for an investigation.
Former Protestant residents have been excluded from an inquiry into allegations of abuse at the Catholic-run Magdalene Laundries.
Last year, the Government were criticised by a UN committee against torture for refusing to acknowledge the pain and abuse women were subjected to in the laundries, and called for a thorough investigation and compensation scheme.
Minister Shatter said there were no immediate plans to extend the McAleese probe to include the Bethany centre.
Mr Linster, who is chairman of Bethany Survivor’s Group, alleged the Government of the day ignored what inspectors of the Dublin home reported.
“The State said because these children were born out of wedlock they were delicare. It was discrimination from day one.
“The Bethany home was also a detention centre for adults convicted of anything from petty crimes to murder; it was also a maternity home,” he said.
It was run by the Church of Ireland and closed in 1970. Women, sometimes alcoholics or prostitutes, left their illegitimate daughters there.
Children died from starvation and lack of care. “Had they been given proper care, a lot of those children would have lived a normal life – that was denied to them,” Mr Linster added.
Aged three, Mr Linster was committed to the home in the 1940s. He survived bouts of illness during his time there and now represents around 24 people seeking compensation and recognition for what they had to endure.
The group want a memorial built at the nearby Mount Jerome graveyard. In 2010, 40 infants from the home were discovered in unmarked graves in the cemetery.
“There are people in terrible poverty who have survived this ordeal but because of lack of education and what was done to them as children, a lot of them lack confidence and are on the breadline. They have never had a chance to make a secure living for themselves.
“Just because we are a minority group does not mean they [the Government] need to treat us any differently. We are citizens of Ireland, all we want is to be treated exactly the same as other citizens,” Mr Linster added.
William Irwin, a Co Armagh-based DUP member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, wants Bethany included in the Magdalene inquiry. Minister Shatter has given him his assurance.
The Minister’s press office have refused to comment.
See also:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0203/breaking46.html