Bodies of infants in cemetery date from 75 years ago
• Former resident claims abuse of orphans was widespread
Henry McDonald in Dublin
The unmarked graves of 40 children from a Protestant residential institution have been discovered in a Dublin cemetery. They contain the bodies of former residents of the Bethany home in Rathgar and date from 75 years ago.
A group of survivors, who say they suffered gross neglect there, are demanding access to the state's redress scheme, which applies to similar institutions. Bethany was a combined maternity and children's home and a place of detention for women convicts.
According to recently discovered records, the infant residents were buried in Mount Jerome cemetery between 1935 and 1936. On average, more than one in 10 babies died each month. A researcher, Niall Meehan, has established the names of all 40 babies in and around two adjoining common graves.
Derek Leinster, who spent his first four years in Bethany, said he would convene the home's first survivors' group there next Wednesday.
Leinster, who is based in Coventry, said the abuse and neglect of Protestant orphans was as brutal and widespread as the maltreatment of children in Catholic-run orphanages and industrial schools.
He said he and other residents were grossly neglected and continued to poor health as a result. The state regulated Bethany and should apply its redress scheme to its survivors, he said.
