Mother and baby home survivor tells how he was close to being 'left in a mass grave'

By Amy Coles
Irish Mirror
March 7, 2017

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/mother-baby-home-survivor-tells-9979304

Derek Leinster outside the Dail

A mother and baby home survivor said he was close to being “one of those children left in a mass grave” after he suffered multiple illnesses as a baby.

Derek Leinster was born in the Protestant Bethany Home, in Rathgar, Dublin, in 1941.

At four-and-a-half-months old he was “torn” from his mother’s arms and left to suffer through horrific diseases like pneumonia and diphtheria.

Fortunately he survived, but was dangerously close to becoming one of the 220 babies and toddlers who died at the home between 1922 and 1949.

Derek said many of them were buried in paupers’ graves.

Now 74 and living in Rugby, England, Derek has spent 23 years campaigning for compensation for survivors.

He said the Tuam scandal was a “great shame on the Irish flag.

He added: “They are my fellow citizens. I’m not about the dead but about helping those still around that have to go through this.

“It’s a shame we allowed our country to get into such a state since 1922 and allowed religious mad people to take over and run the country.

“Those people should now be dealt with and a serious effort made to catch these people and put them in court.”

In November last year, Derek won a legal battle to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

In 2014 he got the Government’s agreement to investigate the home.

He was also key in the unveiling of a memorial to dead children from Bethany.