'Westbank' childrens' home in Greystones

Honestly!

Programme on RTE now "Would you believe"

LINK ADDED Would You Believe - "Auntie" Mathers

Any local knowledge? I see FG Councillor Jones on there saying Mrs. Mathers was a wonderful woman but there are mixed views from those being interviewed and who had to live there!

Looks like the home was in 3 different addresses in Greystones over the decades.

aynneone

I have to say, I just came across this by accident and am shocked, Ive lived here for 32 years, and live in the older part of Greystones, actually down by the old cemetery and cant believe... Ive never heard of any of this before... just been talking to a friend of mine in her 70's and she remembers some of the children.. certainly opening up a can of worms...

eigrod

There was a thread on this a few months ago. Possibly something to do with the researchers looking for info : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69569544

ashmac

i am 38 and i have lived in greystones all my life. i remember the orphanage being there. we used to get the bus to school in dublin..well to bray and then the dart..this was back in early 80's. i remember that girl helen very well. so sad for her. i wish i knew and could of helped back then. the women who seemed to have an idilic childhood there.??? i dunno, they kept flashing a pic of her and mrs. mathers...they looked alike?? maybe she was the secret child and thats why she got treated so well. great doc. i love these stories. greystones is full of them. if the programme makers are reading this....pm me! after all is said..it seems the bad stories outweigh the good so i believe them.

pixbyjohn

eigrod wrote: »

There was a thread on this a few months ago. Possibly something to do with the researchers looking for info : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69569544

That thread was someone who had toys to donate to charity and was wondering if Westbank was still open so that the toys could be donated to the kids there.

Honestly!

Honestly! wrote: »

Programme on RTE now "Would you believe"

LINK ADDED Would You Believe - "Auntie" Mathers

Any local knowledge? I see FG Councillor Jones on there saying Mrs. Mathers was a wonderful woman but there are mixed views from those being interviewed and who had to live there!

Looks like the home was in 3 different addresses in Greystones over the decades.

Astonishing how local "leaders" i.e. politicians and church leaders etc. always saw these homes as "places of love and Christianity". What many chose to unfortunately ignore, ruined the lives of thousands as we all know.

LINK ADDED Would"]http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1100053"]Would You Believe - "Auntie" Mathers[/URL]

keano_afc

ashmac wrote: »

i am 38 and i have lived in greystones all my life. i remember the orphanage being there. we used to get the bus to school in dublin..well to bray and then the dart..this was back in early 80's. i remember that girl helen very well. so sad for her. i wish i knew and could of helped back then. the women who seemed to have an idilic childhood there.??? i dunno, they kept flashing a pic of her and mrs. mathers...they looked alike?? maybe she was the secret child and thats why she got treated so well. great doc. i love these stories. greystones is full of them. if the programme makers are reading this....pm me! after all is said..it seems the bad stories outweigh the good so i believe them.

Well it looks lke the documentary makers accomplished their mission so. I personally know several people that have come through Westbank and they all have nothing but good to say about Miss Mathers. Does that mean the 2 men with bad experiences are liars? Probably not, but its unfair of you to form a opinion based on the experiences of 2 people, when close to 1000 kids went through the orphanage down the years.I think its fairer to say the good outweighs the bad, no?

On the programme itself, I thought it was badly edited at times and left the viewer with more questions than answers. The girl who was allegedly sexually abused neglected to say just who carried out the alleged abuse, leaving the viewer to assume it was Miss Mathers. It got quite chessy at times too.

vinpaul

Some disturbing revelations on this well produced programme. The children seemed to have been sent to various different schools. At Primary level, the schools mentioned were Delgany NS, St Patrick's, Greystones and St Laurence's Greystones (a school within the Catholic Archdiocese).
While the Secondary schools alluded to included Rathdown, Newpark, St Andrews, the only teacher to have anything to say was the Principal of St Laurence's Ms Coveney. Perhaps other teachers might have been approached for comments. Difficult to attach credit to such divergent views of the people (all now adults) shown on the documentary.

Huntthe

vinpaul wrote: »

Some disturbing revelations on this well produced programme. The children seemed to have been sent to various different schools. At Primary level, the schools mentioned were Delgany NS, St Patrick's, Greystones and St Laurence's Greystones (a school within the Catholic Archdiocese).
While the Secondary schools alluded to included Rathdown, Newpark, St Andrews, the only teacher to have anything to say was the Principal of St Laurence's Ms Coveney. Perhaps other teachers might have been approached for comments. Difficult to attach credit to such divergent views of the people (all now adults) shown on the documentary.

What's the significance of the children being sent to Schools ?

A lot of stuff was alluded to and not specified. It was a bit tabloidy.

Rasmus

eigrod wrote: »

There was a thread on this a few months ago. Possibly something to do with the researchers looking for info : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=69569544

As pixbyJohn stated (thanks) I was just looking for an organization to benefit from a charity event. Nothing to do with research.

ragbag

I was in boarding school in Dublin in the late 60s early 70s with girls from Westbank. The school was Bertrand and Rutland High School in Eccles street where the Mater Private hospital is now.It was amalgamated into Mount Temple in 1974.
We knew the girls as orphans and found them very normal. They were well cared for in my opinion. One girl was a bit troublesome, but then there is always one or two in a group. They were very religious but so were others in the school. They went back to the home every weekend

CORKDIVA

keano_afc wrote: »

Well it looks lke the documentary makers accomplished their mission so. I personally know several people that have come through Westbank and they all have nothing but good to say about Miss Mathers. Does that mean the 2 men with bad experiences are liars? Probably not, but its unfair of you to form a opinion based on the experiences of 2 people, when close to 1000 kids went through the orphanage down the years.I think its fairer to say the good outweighs the bad, no?

On the programme itself, I thought it was badly edited at times and left the viewer with more questions than answers. The girl who was allegedly sexually abused neglected to say just who carried out the alleged abuse, leaving the viewer to assume it was Miss Mathers. It got quite chessy at times too.

WOW - do you watch a different programme there were 3 men who said they were abused injected and beaten, one who was taken to the gp which was also reproted to the eastern health board.

ragbag

I am not saying everything was rosey in Westbank, I don't know and I don't doubt the allegations of the men on the programme last night. My memory was of girls who were happy and well founded except for the one as I said. I don't where any of them are now.

CORKDIVA

ragbag wrote: »

I am not saying everything was rosey in Westbank, I don't know and I don't doubt the allegations of the men on the programme last night. My memory was of girls who were happy and well founded except for the one as I said. I don't where any of them are now.

i accept that i was replying to another post, there will be more to read about westbank - as there was in northern ireland newspapers on sunday

ashmac

i think alot was kept out of it mainly because wyb is a religious programme not a investigative one (sp?) like other xpose ones before it, there will be lots in the media about it and it will die down and be forgotton like so many other places. the point is this women was amazing because she did it alone...however, that is questionalble in my opinion. why did she refuse any state funding...and yes, they did go to private schools but yet didnt have enough money for dog biscuits?? why would she be so particular about their education yet having no money..its all a bit haphazzard..local talk today says that they were beaten with flexes adn all the kids were terrified. to me it doessnt sound good. why wait till someone dies to reveal all this??

The Bishop Basher

Honestly! wrote: »

Astonishing how local "leaders" i.e. politicians and church leaders etc. always saw these homes as "places of love and Christianity". What many chose to unfortunately ignore, ruined the lives of thousands as we all know.

Please educate yourself on the facts before making these kind of insinuations. I grew up in Greystones and went to school with kids from Westbank. We had no idea that anything was going on. They seemed like normal happy children just like the rest of us.

How were church leaders and local politicians supposed to think any different ?

It obviously needs to be rigourisly investigated now and the full truth uncovered but your comments allude to recent scandals accross the country where children were abused and there were deliberate cover ups to protect the perpertrators. This was not the case here and at no time was that allegation made on the programme.

With regard to inaction by the EHB to investigate the beating with a flex, that was a failure on the part of the state body to follow up.

Generalised, ill thought out and sweeping statements help no one here.

LEIN

There seems to be a lot of comments being made on this thread that cant be backed up with concrete evidence and for that reason i can not let it continue.