Daniel Loftus

@danielloftus.projectinfant.ie

3442 Followers 683 Following

22 | College Student | Genealogist, creator of Project Infant — projectinfant.ie, posts #Genealogy and my research into #MotherAndBabyHomes. Wanna-be many things, too little time. Hopeful optimist. 😅 Links: https://linktr.ee/danielloftus 📍Cork, Ireland

Search entry result for Patricia Brennan giving her age at death, date of death and district.
Error message which reads: "Sorry, we had trouble getting those results. Please try again or contact our Customer Support team for help."
Photo of me holding a framed award which reads: “Special Award to Outstanding Support in Highlighting our Cause by Exposing our Truth” with my name underneath.
Photo of Microsoft Word, where the word count up to 4,248 words.
Gallery style website design.
Screenshot of Taboo (by Dr. Fiona Barry) podcast page showcasing Breda’s episodes in two parts.
The new dashboard for the Irish Newspaper Archive website.
Site path reading: Home > Support > Building and Estates > Room Bookings > My Timetable
User blocked & user blocking you tags that are present on a profile page.
In a period of Ireland’s history where its impact still rings through to the present day, affecting thousands of families (including my own), it’s important that all institutions are afforded the same respect when remembering those who lost their lives in the institutions. Since Project Infant began in July 2022, it had originally served as an online tribute to mothers and children who died in Mother and Baby Institutions, County Homes and Adoption Homes, so far collectively, eleven have been recorded to date - amounting to recording to just over 6,500 names. But things change, and Project Infant is no different. In August 2024: the first Industrial School was added. To date, we have recorded deaths in six of them, recording the names of 452 children. Now, in September 2025: we have added the first Magdalene Laundry to the website. This is the Magdalene Laundry which was located in Forster Street in Galway City. This new inclusion has resulted in the names of 128 women who died in the Forster Street Laundry being added to Project Infant. We endeavour to continue our work in restoring the names of the thousands who died in Ireland’s institutions. – Daniel Loftus, Project Infant Founder
@genealogybaby I see this fella more than my own husband. #genealogy #familyhistory #ancestry [Enclosed is the error message for Ancestry with a photo of a man sifting for gold]
Screenshot of taskbar and top half of a browser window giving an Error 404 message.
Browser window with tens of tabs trying to open for Project Infant's website.
A range of magazines and publications in a shop shelf from titles such as “Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine” and “Family Tree Magazine (UK)”.
List of website referrers.
In Memory Of: Bridget McCarthy - November 22nd 1927 - 23 years Michael Thompson - December 19th 1927 - 2 months Joseph Grace - May 28th 1928 - 1 month John Grace - June 22nd 1928 - 6 weeks John Swanton - June 26th 1928 - 2 months Catherine (Kate) O’Brien - July 27th 1929 - 25 years Eliza (Lizzie) McCarthy - September 23rd 1932 - 26 years Margaret Mahony - December 5th 1940 - 40 years Josephine Larkin - January 10th 1942 - 19 years Mary Cuddihy - December 30th 1942 - 39 years Nellie Grosse - September 18th 1943 - 58 years Mabel Jessie Huckvale - January 22nd 1953 - 82 years Elizabeth Susie Hope - September 21st 1957 - 47 years Joan Twomey - June 25th 1958 - 62 years Louise Bridget O’Leary - March 23rd 1974 - 81 years Julia O’Donoghue - May 17th 1984 - 81 years Ann Walsh - January 23rd 1985 - 85 years
A poorly kept gravesite.
Project Infant logo. Three silhouettes in an oval with a gradient going from white to pink to blue as the background.
A snippet of a death certificate with the cause of death that needs to be deciphered.
Promo for In Plain Sight by Noelle Brown and Camille O'Sullivan. It is taking place from July 8th to 12th 2025 at the Sacred Heart of Mary Convent.
- Activity subscriptions: receive push notifications when users post by subscribing to their activity. - More detailed notification settings: change which notifications you receive and from whom. - New notification types: likes on reposts, reposts of reposts. - Multiple visual improvements to post threads. - Fixed a bug which made it difficult to link to search results. - Multiple other bugfixes.
Dear Mr Loftus I refer to your Freedom of Information request seeking the following and apologise for the delay in response caused by heavy workloads "to view the burial registers for St Joseph's Cemetery, Ballyphehane and St Finbarr's Cemetery to search for the mothers and children connected to Bessborough Mother and Baby Institution who are buried in those cemeteries. To view records from the 1948 to 1998 St Joseph's and 1930- 1998 for St Finbarr's" did an extensive search of these same records on behalf of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission and his findings would have been included in the Report. In addition, spent a considerable time searching through the records of St Joseph's Cemetery in relation to any Bessborough records. I would suggest in the first instance checking the Commission Report or with specifically in relation to St Joseph's Cemetery records. If you are not successful, we can arrange supervised access to the records. You may appeal this decision under Section 21. Please note that a fee applies for an appeal, with the exception of an appeal against the imposition of a fee. The level of this has been set at €30.00 or €10.00 for medical card holders. In the event that you need to make such an appeal, you can do so by writing to:
Dear Mr Loftus, Please find attached acknowledgement letter in respect of FOl request 130-25.
To view the burial registers for St. Joseph's Cemetery, Ballyphehane + St. Finbarr's Cemetery to search for the mothers and children connected to Bessborough Mother and Baby Institution who are buried in those cemeteries. To view records from 1948-1998 for St. Joseph's + 1930-1998 for St. Finbarr's.
A distance shot of the Bessborough boards that have the children's and mother's names on them, with yellow flowers off to the side.
A woman looks down at the sheet of paper she is holding, speaking into a microphone.
A man in a white shirt wearing a sleeveless jacket speaks into a microphone.
A woman looking out at the crowd speaking into a microphone.
A lady wearing a black top holding sheets of paper speaking into a microphone.
A man in a blue suit holding a green binder speaking into a microphone.
A woman is speaking into a microphone holding a clipboard.
The three women are singing and the one on the left is playing the piano. L-R: Hannah Fitzgerald, Karen Underwood & Christiana Underwood.
A man wearing a Hawaiian shirt with palm trees holding a sheet of paper in one hand, holding a microphone in the other
Me speaking to Taoiseach, Micheál Martin.
Me holding a booklet that I made called “a Teen’s Guide to Researching Your Irish Roots”.
Promotional poster which reads: Commemorating the Women & Children of Bessboro MC: PJ Coogan Guest Speakers: Dr Claire MeGettrick & Professor Katherine O'Donnell Music by Karen, Christiana Underwood & John O'Brien Bessborough Centre Blackrock, T12 CRAO, Cork 29th June 2025 at 2pm - Tea/Coffee after in the Blackrock Inn ~ E: bessboroevent@yahoo.com All Welcome
Death entries of Annie Roughneen Jr. & Sr.
Photo of the corner of the Tuam memorial garden in Galway.
Excerpt of a death record for Patricia Brennan, a 2 year old child who died on 16th May 1938 in Pelletstown.
Screenshot of timeline showing two posts about the DNA Painter matrix tool together.
A photo of the St. Patrick's Mother and Baby Home names.
A monochrome image of a speech bubble with an ellipsis made of three crumpled pieces of paper inside. The post is called "I heard a rumour..." with the tagline, 'when a rumour turns out to be nothing of the sort.'
Promotional graphic on a light grey background reading: "Issue #1 The 'Grace' case, Artane Industrial School names, Redress Scheme & Chrissie Tully"
Logo of 'The Institutions', at the top are three windows, in one window the silhouette of a woman's side profile, the second window has a silhouette of a mother holding a child, the third has silhouettes of two children. Below that is the publication name, below that is a door with red vertical lines, symbolising jail bars.
Death entry of Mary Cuddihy, 39, who died in St. Patrick's Hospital, Cork - formerly of Bessboro.
I think my feelings have been a little over the place recently. I didn’t know why I felt the way I did. I felt guilt. I felt anger. Especially during college time. I couldn’t figure out why. But, I’ve figured it out. As I’m fast approaching Project Infant’s third anniversary (July 16th), I always felt guilty whenever I wasn’t doing research. I felt guilty that I’m not doing enough to try and do what the government didn’t, to try and find all of the names of those who died in Ireland’s institutions. I felt guilty that I didn’t start Project Infant years ago, when there were more survivors alive that I could’ve possibly helped. I felt guilty like I was always missing something obvious, something right in front of me. Something that could be the answer that could start a chain reaction and get things moving again. I felt angry because I keep hitting brick wall after brick wall with trying to get the names of hundreds of babies who died in institutions who don’t have a death cert, that the commission know about from the FOI department that has turned me down 5 times. I feel angry that many elderly survivors now, will never see the full extent of what the commission found because a (now-ex) Minister thought it would be a brilliant idea to seal everything from the Mother and Baby Home Commision Archive for 30 years. I will be 47, when everything is released. Many survivors will be dead. (Will there still be people who care?) I feel angry that I can’t find a way to get rid of said records sealing. I feel angry that the State continues to ignore so many people and can’t seem to ever give (or at least pretend to) a flying damn to do something that is some fitting semblance of justice. I feel angry that the State has gone back on promises made.
Snippet of my TikTok profile showing my account is verified.
A memorial with an extensive inscription and decorative flowers at the base.
Screenshot of some lists.
Death entry of Louise Bridget O’Leary in March of 1974.
Tracy @AddressingLife Looking for someone near Kew, England in the #genealogy community who could help me out with some local in-person records research, early - mid 1700s Parliamentary, Legal and Royal house records. Plz share or DM. Thanks in advance!
Two links in a note.
Screenshot of newly designed website for IrishGenealogy.ie