Sandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Patrick Anderson-McQuoid was a survivor of Bethany Home. His mother entered the home in March 1947. He gave testimony in February 2013 which reflects and illustrates the heartbreaking story of so many mothers and children who passed through these homes and the anguish and uncertainty the experience caused them. These people very much deserve redress and justice. I wish to read his testimony into the record.

My birth mother came from County Wicklow and entered Bethany Home in March 1947; she was five months pregnant with me. She went into the Rotunda Hospital and gave birth to me on 24 July 1947. Both of us returned to live in Bethany Home. My mother stayed in Bethany with me until November (4 months) when she left me. Two weeks later I was removed from Bethany Home taken to a nurse mother in Roscrea in County Tipperary.

My first memory came from that period of time. I was one year old. The strength of the sun’s rays were broken by the flinching movement of tree branches within a rectangular dark-edged frame. The scene was broken by the image of a person’s head wearing a round big hat.

This small piece of memory relates to more information that I will explain later.

In April 1950, I was removed from my nurse mother in County Tipperary by a Church of Ireland vicar to the Fold and Boley Home in Monkstown, Dublin, run by the ICM. I was examined by a doctor. It was noted that: "This child came to us in very poor condition with cold blue extremities, continuous anaemia and obvious rickets of the head. He was not talking much and would not play with other children. His heart was irregular. Cheeks and lips blue."

At this time, the Bethany Home had a duty of care for me but they placed me with a nurse mother that failed to care for me, at all, ending with me being very ill indeed, as I described.

While at the Boley Home, my birth mother signed a form with the ICM giving away her rights to me and not to interfere with any arrangements made by the ICM or communicate with me. Also, she was asked to pay £6 per month for the next five months. In January 1951, ICM transferred me to the Elliot Home, part of the Smiley’s Homes.

In May 1951, I was taken from Smiley’s Home to Northern Ireland. This transfer was arranged by the ICM and was illegal. It transpires that when I was removed to Northern Ireland I was given to my nurse mother’s sister. I was adopted in Northern Ireland in 1952, to a farmer and his wife, both aged 51 years of age. I was just over three years of age and can remember it in detail. I was traumatised as a result of the emotional, physical and physiological experiences that up to that young age I went through.

I will move on, but in passing I wish to point out that my time with my adopted parent was a situational trauma which built up over time due to being brought up in a very strict religious routine tied in with Victorian values. I do not wish to go into the details of that today.

When I was 13 years of age my adopted mother died. I did the cooking, cleaning and also farm work. I bunked off school, hid during the day in a tree hut on the farm. At the age of 15 years I got a part time job, saved £12 and got on the Belfast to Liverpool ferry and on to London, sleeping rough until I got my life on track.

During the 70s and 80s I tried to get my records here in Ireland and Northern Ireland where I found it was not legal to do so. I never gave up hope in finding my identity and history.

I got involved in the visual arts as an artist and other cultural work, and lived in Cornwall. I moved to Cork City where I worked with the Irish Ballet Company for two years as an assistant stage manager doing lighting and sound. I left the ballet company and opened my own gallery in Paul Street, Cork. Later, I spent over one year working on opening an arts centre for Cork. This I achieved in 1978 when I was the artistic director and founder of the Triskel Art Centre. Almost 35 years later it is going well.

After leaving Triskel and Cork, I lived in London working in a major gallery. In the mid-1980s I had a serious illness and found out that I had a hole in my heart and later was refused life insurance cover of any kind. Due to my previous details of my removal from Ireland I never had any medical records.

I came back to Ireland in 1989 and settled in County Leitrim where I still live. In 1980, the law changed in Northern Ireland and I found my birth mother's name. I also contacted PACT but was told they had no records of me. I traced my birth mother after over a year of searching. She had changed her name by getting married and moving from County Wicklow. Through a third party I made contact but she refused to meet me. I had a breakdown and was hospitalised and had counselling after a suicide attempt.

A while later I received a letter from the PACT with a copy of a birth cert. It was of another child that my mother had four years after my own birth. Seven years later my half-brother contacted by chance my third-party contact in Wicklow, trying to find his mother. He was told she was alive and that I was his brother and was searching for him. He lived in Utah, USA, and was removed from Ireland to the USA when he was three months old. I went to Utah in early 1999 and we met. Also, we contacted our mother via the Church of Ireland but, sadly, yet again she refused to have any contact with us.

On my return and two weeks later in Leitrim I learned that my birth mother had passed away. I went to the funeral on my own with two yellow roses from myself and my half-brother, my identity unknown to those there.

Over a year later, after contact with my mother’s family, two half-sisters and a half-brother arranged by a third party, it broke down and now there is no contact.

In 2003, I suffered a breakdown and spent a year and a half getting counselling every week. I survived that and later in 2005 I met my nurse mother’s daughter who confirmed my first memory for me of the journey to Belfast in 1951 as it was her who took me on the train. She also told me in more detail of myself being in trauma at the time and also of another child named Joseph that died.

At last in 2010, I traced my records and found out what I have just read to you all here today. The pain of that search is still with me. I joined together the memories with factual truth.

So two years ago at the age of 63 years old, I could introduce myself to myself and understand what had happened on the way. I was removed from my place of birth, but returned to leave something good and long-lasting for the benefit of Ireland, meaning the Triskel Arts Centre.

As a member of Bethany Survivors, I seek in simple terms that the records are removed from PACT and placed in open access; a memorial at the Mount Jerome Cemetery for the 219 small infant children from the Bethany Home that are buried in an unmarked mass grave; and, most of all, justice from our Government, the Church of Ireland, and redress in some form.

See this speech in context