The Least of These

Lying at the very edge of the eighteenth-century city, behind high walls and forbidding gates, the Dublin Foundling Hospital was long viewed with horror and suspicion. Yet, following its closure, it seemed to have slipped from the city's memory. The Least of These uncovers the story of the Hospital, from its origins as a workhouse in 1703 during the Penal Laws to its demise in 1830. Its mission: to take in the children of poor Catholics and raise them as Protestants, loyal to king and empire. This was an institution where every infant was tattooed with an identification number, where thousands of children were fed opium and where, as with many foundling hospitals, the death toll was vast.

But why did it endure for so long? And why did quite so many die? Based on original research, Mark B. Roe brings together eyewitness accounts, letters from desperate parents and individual life stories to finally bring the tragic story of Dublin's Foundling Hospital to light.

Auteur

Mark is a medical practitioner and qualified historian.

Texte du rabat

Imagine an institution where 125,000 children are admitted - and 100,000 die or go missing. This is the story of the Dublin Foundling Hospital. Its mission: to take in the children of poor Catholics and raise them as Protestants, loyal to king and empire. Lying at the very edge of the eighteenth-century city, behind high walls and forbidding gates, the Dublin Foundling Hospital was often the object of horror and curiosity during its lifetime. But following its closure this enigmatic institution seemed to slip from the city's memory. Based on new research, this book tells the dramatic story of the Hospital, including the tattooing of every child admitted with an identification number and the feeding of opium to thousands of children, hastening their deaths. Above all, the author searches for clues as to what happened to the children and why the institution was protected and allowed to continue for a hundred years.