RootsChat.Com
Ireland (Historical Counties) => Ireland => Dublin => Topic started by: Michelle Rose on Wednesday 21 October 20 23:45 BST (UK)
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Hey there,
Hoping to pick the brains of you good people, regarding the Regina Coeli Hostel on Nth Brunswick Street in Dublin. Anyone know anything about it?
It appears that my Grandmother, Rose Ryan nee Friary (d. 2007) lived there when a couple of her children were very little, but for how long I don't know and they do not have any memory of living there. I was wondering how many women lived there at one time in the mid to late '50's and what kind of 'situations' the mother's would have been in (most unmarried, I assume, but were there widows, pauper-pregnant women there, etc).
I have a theory that my grandmother was still living there while married with 2 young children, but her new husband was in England, securing a boarding house that would house both of them and the children. My gran is registered as living at the Regina Coeli hostel on her marriage cert to him, while he was living at a boarding house in Luton, Beds. However, the house he was living in appears to have been a boarding house for mainly single (all unrelated) men. However, I have also found a death registration for a baby that is under his surname, but as living at the hostel at the time of death and 4 months after the marriage.
I just wondered if anyone could shed any light on the place and direct to me where I might find records for it (if there are/were any!).
Thanks.
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Per the Dublin Evening Mail of 16 February 1959 (page 6) there were then 146 women and 112 children in the Regina Coeli hostel.
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If you search, there are various references to it online. Here are a couple.
https://www.rootschat.com/links/01pz0/
https://www.broadsheet.ie/2019/03/20/the-real-stories-of-regina-coeli/
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A couple more references:
Regina Coeli Hostel, Morningstar Avenue, Dublin 7
(off Brunswick Street North)
https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50070341/regina-coeli-hostel-morningstar-avenue-dublin-7-dublin-city
https://webgis.buildingsofireland.ie/HistoricEnvironment/?REG_NO=50070341
KG
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From http://map.geohive.ie/mapviewer.html
GeoHive Map
https://bit.ly/3mbAgPF
Part of North Union Workhouse
Historic Map 25 inch (1888-1913)
https://bit.ly/34l7bLx
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OP,
Here's the Google Street View of it in 2019.
https://www.rootschat.com/links/01pz1/
Have you also seen this article?
https://www.ionainstitute.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Iona-Talk.pdf
KG
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Thank you for your replies :)
I have a lot of reading to do!
Much appreciated.
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Is there anyway to view Regina coeli records, apparently my grandmother and mother stayed there in 1952
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Is there anyway to view Regina coeli records, apparently my grandmother and mother stayed there in 1952
Hi Michael,
I'm on a similar journey myself. My mother, uncle and grandmother were in the hostel in 1959.
These kinds of places are not forthcoming in answering questions or helping with information. I have been in touch with Gordon Lewis, who is the author of two books, detailing his experience as a child in the Regina Coeli Hostel. Look him up. He's worth a read and his words may be able to give you some answers to what their lives were like there.
If you find any way of getting information from them, please give me a shout!
Good luck.
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Regina coeli was apparently run by mission of Mary, I’ve contacted them asking for any info, they replied and said they will look into it for me, that’s as far as I’ve got so far
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It's an absolute disgrace they totally stone Wall you about information about your loved ones,
They hide behind the legion of Mary order as if that has any relevance or importance, their protected by the State as they were when they carried out their atrocities on vulnerable women and children,
Don't let up on them demand what's rightfully yours
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www.childrenshomes.org.uk/DublinReginaCoeli/
Extracts from the final report of Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes
https://www.irishcatholic.com/a-place-where-women-were-encouraged-to-keep-their-children/
Article dated 21st January 2021)
I have been in touch with Gordon Lewis, who is the author of two books, detailing his experience as a child in the Regina Coeli Hostel. Look him up. He's worth a read and his words may be able to give you some answers to what their lives were like there.
Newspaper articles about or by Gordon Lewis.
"Real lives: We were called the unfortunates but that's not how I viewed myself" "Daily Mail" 26th April
2015
"How an Irish boy born in a home for unwed mothers became an international success story" "Irish Post"
24 Dec. 2020
"Being there meant my mother and I could be together" "Irish Independent" 17th Jan 2021
He's making a film. Article "Life of Legion of Mary founder Frank Duff to be made into a film" "Irish Times" 2nd March 2022.
He and his mother lived there until he was 9, his mother keeping his existence secret from her family.
Regina Coeli was different to other mother and baby homes in Ireland in that it enabled mothers to keep their children.