Mary Lou McDonald welcomes Cork City Council’s call for Government apology to Bethany Home survivors

Mary Lou McDonald welcomes Cork City Council’s call for Government apology to Bethany Home survivors Sinn Féin Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald TD today welcomed Cork City Council’s decision to pass a Sinn Féin motion calling on the Government to provide a full apology to the surviving women and men of Bethany Home and to immediately put in place a mechanism of redress. Deputy McDonald said: “A motion calling for an apology and redress for Bethany Home survivors put forward by Sinn Féin Councillors Chris O’Leary and Fiona Kerin’s was successfully passed at last night’s Cork City Council meeting. “Cork City Council’s support for the survivors of Bethany Home is welcome and hopefully other Councils will follow. “State inspections of Bethany under the Registration of Maternity Homes Act record the horrendous neglect of children in the home. “Some 219 Bethany children died in this small institution between 1922 and 1949 and lay buried in unmarked graves in Mount Jerome Cemetery. “Neglect in Bethany Home was in some instances barbaric and in others wilfully negligent. Labour and Fine Gael cannot continue to ignore their responsibility on behalf of the state to the surviving women and men.” ENDS