ORIGINALLY KNOWN AS Pelletstown and later as Saint Patrick’s Mother and Baby home on the Navan Road, Dublin 7, it was originally a public workhouse and probably designated a ’special institution’ exclusively for single mothers in 1904.
It was converted for such usage in 1906 by George Sheridan at a cost of £11,000. Pelletstown was owned and financed by the Poor Law Guardians and the Dublin Union (i.e the state), and run on their behalf by the Sisters of the Daughters of Saint Vincent de Paul (later called the Daughters of Charity).
Saint Patrick’s was by far the largest of the nine Mother and Baby homes in terms of the numbers who passed through and approximately 9,000 to 12,000 women and girls went through its doors. It was also a massive ‘holding centre’ in it’s own right for unaccompanied babies and children. It was certified for 149 beds for unmarried mothers and 560 cots/beds for babies and children.
Babies and children who passed away were sent for burial to the national Angel’s Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery in north Dublin. There are two periods when exact numbers of deaths are known and rough estimates from other years would indicate that at least 2,000 and possibly above 3,000 babies and children died during its 81 years of operation on the Navan Road.
The home was closely associated with Saint Kevin’s Hospital in Dublin city centre now known as Saint James.