Westbank Orphanage

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 founded with the Protestant Home for Orphan & Destitute Girls moved from Harolds 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 evangelical Christian and ran by Miss Adeline Mathers a born-again Christian.[2] It tried to find homes for the children with families of the Protestant faith; as a result, a number of children would have been sent to families in Northern Ireland, England, and Scotland. Recently the orphanage has come into the public eye due to allegations of abuses.[3] In the 1960s children from another Protestant run home, the Bethany Home, were transferred to Westbank.[4] [5].[6] While not state-run or officially run by Church of Ireland, the orphanage was designated by the Church and state as place to send orphans of the Protestant faith. Westbank Greystones Protestant Orphanage Charity was registered with the Irish government as a charity and availed of tax benefits as a result.

Former residents Westbank Orphanage, Greystones and Ovoca House in Wicklow, have demanded inclusion in the Irish Governments 2002 redress scheme, and an apology.[7]

After its closure in the late 1990s records were transferred to the PACT (Protestant Adoption Society), however in recent years these records have been handed back to Westbank to deal with.[8]

Protestant Home for Orphan & Destitute Girls, Harolds Cross, Dublin

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 it Wicklow in the 1940s.[10]

See also

References
  1. The Protestant orphanage where children were whipped, beaten --- and everyone had the same name The Journal, July 6, 2014.
  2. Home is where the hurt is www.greystonesguide.ie, February 18, 2017.
  3. Allegations that Wicklow Orphans in state care were used as slaves in Northern Ireland Irish Central, 12 May 2012.
  4. https://thenavigatormedia.com/2019/06/07/survivors-of-institutional-abuse-still-fighting-despite-ministers-decision/ Survivors of Institutional Abuse Still Fighting Despite Minister’s Decision, Page 13, By Patrick Brogan, Navigator Media, June 7, 2019.
  5. Protestant abuse history has been swept under the carpet, by Victoria White, Irish Examiner, Thursday, 5 July 2012
  6. Inquiry into 'exploitation' of orphans, letter by former Bethany, Westbank residents, Derek Leinster, Sydney Herdman, Colm Begley, Helen McCarthy Fitzpatrick, Irish Times, Thursday, 17 May 2012
  7. Protestant homes survivors want an Apology By Laura Larkin, The Hearld, 26 June 2014.
  8. We shouldn’t turn our backs on Protestant survivors of abuse by Victoria White, Irish Examiner, 13 September 2012.
  9. Harolds Cross 60 Years Ago www.haroldscross.org
  10. An Important House in Harolds Cross Rev. Patrick Comerford Blog, www.patrickcomerford.com.


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