Westbank Orphanage (sometimes called Westbank Protestant Orphanage or Westbank Children's Home) was a privately run Protestant orphanage in Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland, which closed in the 1990s. Westbank was originally founded as the Protestant Home for Orphan & Destitute Girls. It moved from Harold's Cross in Dublin to Wicklow in the late 1940s, and began to accept boys as well as girls. [1] The regime at the orphanage was Protestant evangelical Christian and was run by Miss Adeline Mathers, a born-again Christian. [2] While it attempted to find homes for some children with Protestant families, many were retained as helpers and as a means of raising funds. Some children were sent illegally to families in Northern Ireland, England, and Scotland. The orphanage became controversial when allegations of abuses surfaced. [3] In the 1960s children from another related and equally controversial Protestant home, the Bethany Home, were transferred to Westbank. [4] [5] [6] The orphanage was designated by the Church of Ireland and the state as place to send Protestant orphans. Westbank children were sent to worship in Bray Gospel Hall. The orphanage was run by the Westbank Greystones Protestant Orphanage Charity, associated with Bray Gospel Hall. It was registered as a charity and availed of tax benefits as a result.
Former residents of the Westbank Orphanage, Greystones and Ovoca House in Wicklow, demanded inclusion in the Irish Government's 2002 redress scheme, and an apology. [7]
After closure in the late 1990s, records were transferred to the PACT (Protestant Adoption Society). After broadcast of abuse allegations in the RTE documentary, 'Aunties Family Secrets' (5 June 2011), Westbank administrators demanded return of the records. [8]
The Protestant Home for Orphan & Destitute Girls in Harolds Cross, Dublin, was established around 1860 in No. 201 Harolds Cross, in the house where the Quaker, the famous slavery abolitionist Richard Allen was born, in the home of his parents, a large red brick building dating from the mid-18th century. [9] The Orphanage moved to Wicklow in the 1940s. [10]
County Wicklow is a county in Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the province of Leinster. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the east and the counties of Wexford to the south, Carlow to the southwest, Kildare to the west, and South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown to the north.
Greystones is a coastal town and seaside resort in County Wicklow, Ireland. It lies on Ireland's east coast, 3.5 km (2.2 mi) south of Bray and 24 km (15 mi) south of Dublin city centre and has a population of 22,009, according to the 2022 census. The town is bordered by the Irish Sea to the east, Bray Head to the north and the Wicklow Mountains to the west. It is the second largest town in County Wicklow.
Bray is a coastal town in north County Wicklow, Ireland. It is situated about 20 km (12 mi) south of Dublin city centre on the east coast. It has a population of 33,512 making it the tenth largest urban area within Ireland. Bray is home to Ardmore Studios, and some light industry is located in the town, with some business and retail parks on its southern periphery. Commuter links between Bray and Dublin are provided by rail, Dublin Bus and the M11 and M50 motorways. Parts of the town's northern outskirts are in County Dublin.
An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or abusive. There may be substance abuse or mental illness in the biological home, or the parent may simply be unwilling to care for the child. The legal responsibility for the support of abandoned children differs from country to country, and within countries. Government-run orphanages have been phased out in most developed countries during the latter half of the 20th century but continue to operate in many other regions internationally. It is now generally accepted that orphanages are detrimental to the emotional wellbeing of children, and government support goes instead towards supporting the family unit.
Barnardo's is a British charity founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, to care for vulnerable children. As of 2013, it raised and spent around £200 million each year running around 900 local services, aimed at helping these same groups. It is the UK's largest children's charity, in terms of charitable expenditure. Its headquarters are in Barkingside in the London Borough of Redbridge.
Bray Head is a 241 m (791 ft) hill and headland located in northern County Wicklow, Ireland, between the towns of Bray and Greystones. It forms part of the Wicklow Mountains and is a popular spot with hillwalkers. At the top of the head is a concrete cross which was placed there in 1950 during the holy year. Every Good Friday, hundreds of local people climb to the top of the head in a Good Friday procession marking the stations of the Cross as they go along, with the final station being held at the holy year cross. The headland and adjacent lands were designated under a Special Amenity Area Order in March 2008.
The Irish Church Missions (ICM) is a conservative and semi-autonomous Anglican mission. It was founded in 1849 as The Irish Church Missions to the Roman Catholics chiefly by English Anglicans though with the backing and support of Church of Ireland clergy and bishops, with the aim of converting the Roman Catholics of Ireland to Protestantism. The reference to Roman Catholics in the title was removed in 2001.
The Scout Association of Ireland (SAI; Irish: Cumann Gasógaíochta na hÉireann) was an Irish multi-denominational Scout association from 1908 until 2004, when it merged with the former Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland to form Scouting Ireland. It was named "Scouting Ireland (SAI)" in the years leading up to the merger. The SAI was formed soon after the publication of Scouting for Boys and was affiliated to the British Boy Scout Association, which meant its members were mainly unionist and hence Protestant in background. After the 1920s partition of Ireland, the SAI remained organised in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Newtownmountkennedy is a small town in County Wicklow, Ireland. It developed within the historic townland of Ballygarny, although all that remains is a motte where a church, graveyard and a castle or tower house once stood just 0.85 km (0.53 mi) north of the town. It acquired its present name in the mid-seventeenth-century, when Sir Robert Kennedy, M.P. for Kildare, made it his principal residence. It is just off the N11 road to Wexford, just south of Kilpedder and south-west of Greystones. It is about 15 km (9.3 mi) north of Wicklow town, 15 km (9.3 mi) south of Bray and approximately 35 km (22 mi) from Dublin. The R772 regional road passes through the village. This was the main Dublin-Wexford route, the N11, but the village was bypassed by the new N11 dual carriageway in 1990. This town has one of the longest place names in Ireland.
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) was one of a range of measures introduced by the Irish Government to investigate the extent and effects of abuse on children from 1936 onwards. Commencing its work in 1999, it was commonly known in Ireland as the Laffoy Commission after its chair, Justice Mary Laffoy. Laffoy resigned as chair in 2003 and was succeeded by Justice Sean Ryan, with the commission becoming known as the Ryan Commission. It published its final public report, commonly referred to as the Ryan report, in 2009.
Bray (Daly) Railway Station is a station in Bray in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is located adjacent to Bray seafront and is 600 m from Bray Main Street via Florence Road or Quinsborough Road.
The Cavan Orphanage fire occurred on the night of 23 February 1943 at St Joseph's Orphanage in Cavan, Ireland. 35 children and 1 adult employee died as a result. Much of the attention after the fire surrounded the role of the Poor Clares, the order of nuns who ran the orphanage, and the local fire service.
Bethany Home was a residential home in Dublin, Ireland mainly for Protestant unmarried mothers and their children, and also for Protestant women convicted of petty theft, prostitution, and infanticide. Most had a Church of Ireland background. The home was run and managed by evangelical Protestants, who, in the main, were Plymouth Brethren, Church of Ireland or Presbyterian. It catered to "fallen women" and operated in Blackhall Place, Dublin (1921–34), and then in Orwell Road, Rathgar (1934–72), until its closure. The home sent some children, some unaccompanied, to Northern Ireland, England, and to the United States.
Kirwan House or The Female Orphan House was a Church of Ireland-run female orphanage initially at 42 Prussia Street (1790-93), next on Dublin's North Circular Road (1793-1959) and latterly at 134 Sandford Road in Ranelagh (1959-87).
The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, also known as Magdalene asylums, were institutions usually run by Roman Catholic orders, which operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. They were run ostensibly to house "fallen women", an estimated 30,000 of whom were confined in these institutions in Ireland. In 1993, unmarked graves of 155 women were uncovered in the convent grounds of one of the laundries. This led to media revelations about the operations of the secretive institutions. A formal state apology was issued in 2013, and a compensation scheme for survivors was set up by the Irish Government, which by 2022 and after an extension of the scheme had paid out €32.8 million to 814 survivors. The religious orders which operated the laundries have rejected appeals, including from victims and Ireland's Justice Minister, to contribute financially to this programme.
The 2014–2016 Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, often referred to as the HIA Inquiry, is the largest inquiry into historical institutional sexual and physical abuse of children in Northern Ireland legal history. Its remit covers institutions in Northern Ireland that provided residential care for children from 1922 to 1995, but excludes most church-run schools.
PACT is an Irish adoption organisation founded in 1952, formerly called the Protestant Adoption Society. Its main office, Arabella House in Rathfarnham, is named after the philanthropist Lady Arabella Denny. PACT is a registered charity, providing a range of adoption services to Irish families and is accredited by the Adoption Authority of Ireland. PACT run the Here2Help Crisis Pregnancy Service.
Belvedere Protestant Children's Orphanage or Belvedere Home was a Protestant-run children's orphanage in Tyrrellspass, Co. Westmeath which had a Church of Ireland ethos. The Orphanage was founded as a charitable institution at the bequest of Jane, the Countess of Belvedere, who left 6000 pounds to set up a girls orphanage. Built in 1842 in the Tudor revival style, off the Mullingar road, the orphanage was set up in 1843 by the established Protestant church in Ireland to cater for orphans from Protestant families. Anne Somerville was Matron, of the orphanage and was succeeded by her daughter-in-law also Anne.
The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation was a judicial commission of investigation, established in 2015 by the Irish government to investigate deaths and misconduct during the 20th century in mother and baby homes—institutions, most run by Catholic religious nuns, where unwed women were sent to deliver their babies. It was set up following statements that the bodies of up to 800 babies and children may have been interred in an unmarked mass grave in the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, located in Tuam, County Galway. Its remit additionally covered investigation into the records of and the practices at an additional thirteen Mother and Baby Homes. The members of the three-person Commission were Judge Yvonne Murphy (chairperson), Dr William Duncan and Professor Mary E. Daly.
Meath Protestant Industrial School was an industrial school for protestant boys, in Blackrock, Dublin, founded in 1871. It was originally situated Elm cliff, near the station, on land leased by the Earl of Meath and other benevolent members of society, it then moved in 1877 to Avondale House off Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin. While it was a reform school, it also took in boys who were found destitute or begging.
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