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 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]

Protestant Home for Orphan & Destitute Girls, Harolds Cross, Dublin
Westbank Orphanage at 201 Harold's Cross. It was previously the home where Richard Allen was born in 1803.

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]

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. 'Auntie's Family Secrets', RTE One Television, 5 June 2011; 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 Herald, 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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