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Survivors of Protestant mother and baby homes will die before they get compensation they deserve, victim claims
By Cillian O'brien
Survivors of Protestant mother and baby homes will die before they get the compensation they deserve, a brave victim has claimed. Derek Leinster, who was born in the Bethany in 1941, said he and others from such minority facilities have had no financial redress and that for many it is getting too late. The Government launched a new commission of investigation into mother and baby homes earlier this year – more than 15 years after the first was established to seek redress for mostly Catholic survivors. Judge Yvonne Murphy chairs the latest investigation and will issue a report in three years. Bethany Survivors Group leader Derek, 74, said: “It’s taken us 17 years to get the redress we should have had in 1999. “Two hundred and twenty-seven people lost their lives through neglect. “The number of survivors is getting smaller. The problem now is people are getting dementia. “Three years can make a huge difference. A deal was done with the 18 religious orders and ministers back in 1999. “Survivors with a Protestant background were treated differently. That is what this commission has to address. The State had a duty of care to all citizens.” The 227 tragic babies from the Bethany Home in Rathgar, South Dublin, were found in unmarked graves four years ago. Children’s Minister James Reilly said it was a matter for the commission to recommend at any time whether any survivors should receive redress. Derek travelled from Rugby, England, with his wife Carol this week to attended a commission hearing at Lower Baggot Street, Dublin. He was adopted from the Bethany Home as a child to a family in Wicklow, before leaving school aged 13 unable to read or write. Derek said: “I am still being contacted by Bethany survivors looking for redress for what happened to them in the past. “But now the State wants them to go before this commission in 2015 and face two solicitors and two barristers and are expected to understand the 39 pages of the rules of the commission? “They call this justice in Ireland. For Protestant survivors – some justice, this is making my heart bleed.” Derek said many survivors are living with a lifetime of pain and shame as well as a lack of information on their past, including health or adoption records. He added: “It was like being from another world. The State claimed it did not hold records of Protestants, saying it was done by Protestants and did not come under the jurisdiction of the State. Now I have to live with health problems that the Bethany Home has left me with. I am alive only because of the medicine that I have to take every day.” He claims authorities were aware of the Bethany but it was left off the redress board. Derek added: “It was registered under The Registration of Maternity Homes Act 1934. The State paid 15 shillings per child per week. They proved it was inspected by the State.”
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