Hello all. My interest in this thread has been re-activated by the recent report on Mother and Baby Homes. While that report was about public homes, there were others, as we know.
It seems to us that there was a network of private homes, for those who could pay. Through this thread, we certainly know of three in Dublin alone. These were separate from the State system. Despite the legal requirement to register births etc... many details given in and by these homes after birth were false.
The one that interested us was Rose Farrell's at 340 North Circular Road.
Our story:
Through Ancestry DNA, we were able to trace the life of a baby boy born there in 1936. He was baptized shortly after birth in the Pro-Cathedral, and the informant was the same Rose Farrell. Every single detail given to the church was false - child's name, parent's names (they were stated to be married - even the "wife's" maiden name was given), occupation, place of origin. There was no clue whatsoever in the information that was given about who the child really was.
In fact, the boy, and his descendants now bear the surname given to him falsely by Rose Farrell. His birth was only registered in the State many years later, in 1951 ("on the direction of the Registrar General"). We are not sure what prompted this late registration. But, it does seem to indicate that abiding by the law was not high on the agenda of the home.
After birth, he was given/fostered/ sent to a private house not far from the North Circular Road. There were other similar children in that house, so this may have been a regular occurrence. No records exist for any monetary transactions. We have no idea what the arrangement with the householder was.
When he was aged 8, the child was sentenced for the crime of "receiving alms", and sent to Artane Industrial School for seven years. On admittance his physique was described as "below average". He had two decayed teeth, enlarged tonsils and adenoids. He was "physically very poor", with a scar on his back, and had had a broken arm.
(We have learned since that the advantage of children being sentenced in the courts was that the State was now financially liable for the boy.)
Upon release, he returned to the house from which he came, where he was monitored for a number of years (possibly a type of probation). While there, he went to Rose Farrell's home to find out information about his birth and his family, but he was turned away.
Later he went to England, married, had a family, lived happily, and died early this century not knowing anything about his background.
We have since found out, through DNA matching, who his father was. We are still not sure about his mother.
All of Rose Farrell's records have disappeared.
Given this story, we have no confidence that those records exist at all anymore, or that they were given to the HSE or any State body. These homes were for those who could pay. It was a private arrangement. So, there was probably an additional layer of "discretion" or secrecy available that would have not been possible in a State-run system. At least in State homes, the original details of the confinement would have needed to be accurate. The question now is whether they have been made available.
We would love to be proved wrong about the private homes. Maybe Rose Farrell's descendants kept the records, and might now release them. However, this is unlikely.
