Regina Coeli
Distinctive amongst different Mom and Child Properties, Regina Coeli was the one place up till the Seventies that supported single moms who wished to lift their baby, the Fee’s report says.
Described as unconventional, the Regina Coeli Hostel opened on October fifth, 1930 and was run by the Legion of Mary, a lay Catholic organisation.
Between 1930 and 1998, some 5,631 moms and 5,434 youngsters had been admitted.
A report detailing the primary 19 months mentioned the Regina Coeli catered for single moms and “younger and aged and good, unhealthy, detached, legal, proselytised and Protestant.”
Once more, in contrast to different establishments examined by the Fee, the Regina Coeli Hostel by no means acquired direct state assist for sustaining moms and youngsters.
Ladies had been referred by social employees in Dublin maternity hospitals.
“It didn’t distinguish between first-time moms and ladies on a second or subsequent being pregnant. It accommodated girls with psychological sickness, and ladies who had been concerned with crime who won’t have been accepted within the personal mom and child houses.”
Ladies who had the means to pay for a non-public nursing dwelling weren’t admitted.
Whereas some girls stayed for less than an evening or two, others stayed for years. Particulars of lots of the girls’s lives have been recorded on entry playing cards which had been usually up to date years later with additional details about the ladies. Some playing cards span a long time and embrace particulars in regards to the baby.
The Fee’s report particulars how one entry from 1933 said {that a} TD was liable for “her bother.”
She had been “going to Leinster Home and creating scenes there, making an attempt to see him” and had been despatched to Regina Coeli “by the porter from Leinster Home”.
The data additionally contained details about the circumstances of the lady’s being pregnant.
“One entry from 1931 makes it clear that the lady in query was completely ignorant about sexual copy”.
“The playing cards additionally recorded situations of doable rape or incest. Rape is usually recorded as assault or an assault.” In a single case in 1951, a girl’s uncle was recorded to be the daddy.
Plenty of girls additionally seem to have tried to terminate their being pregnant, the report states.
It additionally particulars how there are “many references in admission data to girls being returned to Eire (from England) when it turned evident that they had been pregnant.”
“Some girls who deliberate to journey to England had been stopped earlier than they left Eire.”
Regina Coeli was additionally uncommon in that it “admitted girls who had been, or had been at present, concerned in crime.” The constructing was situated within the centre of Dublin in a disused former workhouse. There have been common outbreaks of infectious illness amongst moms and youngsters.
The Fee’s report particulars how in 1963 the hostel was condemned by Dublin Company as structurally unsafe.
“They really useful that it ought to shut, with residents transferring to a former sanatorium in county Dublin. Regina Coeli survived because of the assist of Minister for Well being Seán MacEntee; a part of the constructing was demolished, residents had been accommodated in chalets. A serious reconstruction was ultimately accomplished within the late Seventies, funded by the Japanese Well being Board.”
13 different mom and child houses had been investigated by the fee. These included:
Kilrush Mom and Child House
Situations within the Kilrush Mom and Child House had been “even worse than Tuam” and toddler mortality charges had been “appalling.”
Few data referring to the house, often known as the Clare County Nursery, may very well be discovered by the Mom and Child Properties Fee of Investigation.
The data that had been discovered depict a bleak surroundings which had no working water, baths or indoor bogs. The previous workhouse was established as a mom and child dwelling in Co Clare in 1922 and was closed in 1932.
Kilrush was funded by the State and operated by the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy.
It couldn’t be decided what number of girls handed by way of the power however the Fee estimated because the determine as between 300 and 400 moms, together with a “a lot bigger quantity” of kids.
The variety of youngsters who died there may be additionally not recognized however in 1927 a medical officer described the dying fee as “appalling”.
The situations had been ‘all the time very poor’ from the beginning and consideration was given to closing down Kilrush only a yr after it opened
At one level the dying fee was so excessive that two additional nurses had been employed to look at the kids day and night time, the report states.
In April 1924, the matron complained there have been 164 residents within the nursery and youngsters had been sleeping two to a mattress “with each liveable nook occupied.”
The situations had been “all the time very poor” from the beginning and consideration was given to closing down Kilrush only a yr after it opened, the report mentioned.
Experiences from the time include references to girls being thrown out of the house with out their youngsters for “insubordination”.
On the whole girls stayed for 2 years except taken out by their household, and solely then with permission from the administration board. Some girls tried to flee, together with three who scaled the wall in 1924 earlier than being returned by the Garda.
In 1926, one lady, Annie Sherlock, was arrested and charged with homicide after bringing her baby into mattress along with her at night time.
The rooms weren’t correctly heated and ladies used to take their infants to mattress with them to maintain them heat. Ms Sherlock’s daughter, Mary, died of asphyxiation through the night time.
At an inquest a jury affixed “no blame to anybody” however a Garda insisted the mom be charged with homicide. The result of the case was not recorded.
Pelletstown
Greater than 15,000 girls and 18,829 youngsters handed by way of Pelletstown throughout its 80-year operation.
The ability, which was often known as the Dublin Union and included St Patrick’s on the Navan Street and Eglinton Home, operated from 1919 to 1998. It was not completely a mom and child dwelling and likewise housed unaccompanied youngsters.
The Fee’s report on Pelletstown doesn’t element the identical harsh situations and mistreatment seen in different houses equivalent to Tuam and Sean Ross.
Simply over 3,600 youngsters died there, with 78 per cent of these deaths occurring the primary 22 years. Pelletstown was distinctive in that its toddler mortality fee didn’t spike through the Nineteen Forties, in contrast to the mortality fee in the remainder of Dublin.
One lady mentioned she was despatched to Pelletsown within the mid-Nineteen Fifties after being raped by a priest
“Within the years 1943-45 toddler mortality in Pelletstown was 14.8 per cent, which was considerably decrease than different mom and child houses,” the report states.
Workers didn’t imagine in protecting a girl within the dwelling indefinitely if the lady didn’t quit the kid for adoption. Moms had been inspired to depart their youngsters behind within the dwelling and go to them repeatedly whereas an adoption placement was discovered.
If a girl wished to take her baby dwelling she was advised she wouldn’t be a profitable mum or dad except she had help from her personal dad and mom.
The fee spoke to a number of former residents. Their predominant complaints had been that Pelletstown was a “extremely institutionalised” setting which had no privateness and that the sisters had been emotionally chilly, “particularly throughout births.”
Ache reduction throughout delivery was insufficient or non-existent and lady had no selection however to put their youngsters for adoption, former residents testified.
One lady recalled “no overt abuse” however added “there was no precise humanity that I keep in mind, or anybody speaking to us.”
One other mentioned she was despatched to Pelletsown within the mid-Nineteen Fifties after being raped by a priest. She gave delivery there and when her child was 9 months previous she was advised the kid was “leaving.”
The girl was later advised she had signed adoption papers however she disputed this. She later gave delivery to twins who had been taken away instantly and he or she assumed that they had died. All three youngsters later discovered her.
Belmont Flatlets
Belmont Flatlets in Dublin had been a extra trendy kind of facility which accommodated younger moms who didn’t undergo the social stigma skilled by earlier generations.
It operated between 1980 and 2001 and housed girls and their infants in hostel-type lodging, the Fee mentioned.
“This was not a mom and child dwelling within the conventional sense. It was extra akin to a hostel or supported dwelling facility than to a mom and child dwelling,” the Fee mentioned.
The moms cared for their very own youngsters with assist from public well being employees. All moms left the house with their youngsters, which means there have been no adoption data for the Fee to look at.
Castlepollard
The Castlepollard mom and child dwelling was opened in 1935 and closed in 1971. Throughout that point, 4,972 girls had been admitted and 4,559 youngsters had been born there or admitted. It was owned and run by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
It opened for admissions in June 1935 after the Meath Board of Well being had within the previous decade mentioned experiences that single moms and their youngsters had been “accumulating in massive numbers” in Trim county dwelling, the newly launched report from the Mom and Child House Fee reveals.
A complete of 247 youngsters died in Castlepollard and 60 per cent of deaths had been within the Nineteen Forties
At the moment a Westmeath councillor proposed that single moms in Meath and Westmeath must be “eliminated to a standalone establishment the place they may very well be ‘put to work’. He thought-about it a scandal that ratepayers ought to ‘foot the invoice’ for sustaining single moms and their youngsters and that if the ladies had been put to work then ratepayers can be ‘relieved of this accountability’”, the report says.
By the top of March 1936, 60 single expectant girls and 12 girls accompanied by a baby had sought admission there.
By 1937 it was “grossly overcrowded” and the state of affairs would proceed to worsen.
“By 1941, girls and their older youngsters had been sleeping in unheated lofts above the stables a long way from the primary home. There was one bathroom for 44 girls and no house to retailer clothes or private belongings,” the Fee says in its govt abstract.
Moreover, within the Nineteen Forties, a sequence of distressing complaints emerged.
A Westmeath councillor advised the county council that girls resident in Castlepollard had been compelled to undertake guide work “extra appropriate to males” and that “women” needed to “reduce timber” in addition to wield heavy sledges, the report says.
There have been additionally allegations that the ladies on the dwelling had been undernourished and closely overworked and that to be able to keep away from soiling the flooring, youngsters, when affected by diarrhoea, “had been stored on nursery chairs for therefore lengthy that the intestines had been recognized to have from time to time protruded.”
There have been additional allegations that moms had been crushed or handled badly. After studying of the complaints, the councillor mentioned that if any of the allegations had been true, the establishment was “not fulfilling its main function of ‘reforming’ girls who had been ‘extra sinned towards than sinning’.”
An inspector, Miss Litster, met the previous resident who made the grievance. Miss Litster concluded a report into the matter and mentioned not one of the claims made by the previous resident would maintain as much as the scrutiny of an inquiry.
In March 1945, seven council members, together with the county supervisor and an area TD reported on a go to to Castlepollard.
They mentioned they had been “agreeably stunned to seek out such a well-run and up-to-date establishment within the county and was a credit score to the Sisters”.
The councillor who had instigated the go to “reluctantly agreed with the committee’s findings however protested that the council ought to have the facility to undertake shock visits to the establishment.”
Overcrowding proceed till the Nineteen Fifties.
A complete of 247 youngsters died in Castlepollard and 60 per cent of deaths had been within the Nineteen Forties, the Fee has discovered.