IRELAND
The Journal
Paul Redmond tells us what he has learned about Castlepollard Mother & Baby Home.
THE ORDER OF the Sacred Heart nuns arrived in Ireland in 1922 within months of the formation of the Irish Free state after the civil war.
They were invited over from England by the newly-formed Irish government to deal with the ‘problem’ of women having babies outside wedlock.
They bought a 200 acre farm in Bessborough, county Cork and began operating a Mother and Baby home. They later expanded and bought Conville House and grounds in Roscrea which they renamed Sean Ross Abbey.
In late-1933 or early-1934, they bought the third and last of their homes; the old Manor House in Castlepollard, county Westmeath with 110 acres of land.
They built St Peters, a three-storey, 120-bed maternity hospital between 1935 and 1937. It was designed by TJ Cullen (1879-1947).
They received a grant of £65,000 from the government (a huge sum of money at the time) from the Hospital Fund which was the Fund for profits from the old Irish Sweepstakes.
It remains the only custom built Mother & Baby home.
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