Castlepollard and Stamullen Homes

Sun in Capri

I was told in my letter from the Adoption Agency that I was in Castlepollard Mother and Baby Home until I was adopted from there at 9 months. As I have been told some information that I now know is not true, I am wondering if anyone knows if babies who were not adopted immediately from say Castlepollard Mother and Baby home would have been moved to the Home in Stamullen? My adoptive Mother often spoke about Stamullen and we visited there when I was a child to bring toys etc

Thanks.

Jessie1965

Sun in Capri wrote: »

I was told in my letter from the Adoption Agency that I was in Castlepollard Mother and Baby Home until I was adopted from there at 9 months. As I have been told some information that I now know is not true, I am wondering if anyone knows if babies who were not adopted immediately from say Castlepollard Mother and Baby home would have been moved to the Home in Stamullen? My adoptive Mother often spoke about Stamullen and we visited there when I was a child to bring toys etc

Thanks.

I was a trainee nursery nurse in St Joseph's Babies Home Stamullen from August 1983 to August 1985. From my recollection there were babies in the admissions ward that were admitted maybe a short while after being born. There were also babies that were in holy angels ward that were aged from about 2 months until they were able to sit up on their own, about 5-6 months. A good few mothers would reclaim their child after marrying the father. There was a huge social stigma to having a baby before marriage then and they needed to do that for respect in the community. There were 30 babies there then
. Babies for adoption would be adopted and gone out of the home relatively quickly, within a month or so.
Babies and toddlers were also placed in the home by the courts as a "place of safety" if the parents were neglecting or other types of abuse. A social worker would have reported this neglect or abuse.
There were a few traveller children and special needs children and there were children of women who were single mothers. Sometimes the babies/toddlers were between foster homes, their own mother or parents and the residential home there in Stamullen. The mother would sometimes want the nuns to rear her child.

I noticed the mother of a child knew more about her child than we nursery nurses because she always examined her baby very closely as an individual little person. We had to follow a regular busy routine but we bought Sunday clothes for the children and we loved talking to them to bring them on. Sr Carmela brought the toddlers to the library every Tuesday for story telling there in Balbriggan. They were very fond of her and called her Mela. She was a kind sensible nun.
There was confidentiality there about the children's origins so we girls were not told about anything much.