Tragedy of Irish Mother and Baby homes exposed
(Staff) THOUSANDS OF INFANTS died in homes for unwed mothers run by the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland during the last century, according to a government report issued Jan. 12.
Ireland’s Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes found 9,000 children died in the institutions – many without any burial records. The investigation also found that infant mortality rates at the homes were 15 percent or nearly double the overall national rate. And five times higher than that for married mothers.
About 56,000 women and 57,000 children were placed or born at the homes from 1922 until the last one closed in 1998. Families brought the women to the homes, which doubled as orphanages and adoption agencies, to hide what was deemed the shame of pregnancy and birth out of wedlock. While run by nuns, the 18 homes received state funding.
The report found no evidence of sexual abuse and little evidence of physical abuse – a version challenged by some survivors – but documented cruelty, intolerance, neglect and an “appalling” infant mortality rate.
In some years during the 1930s and 1940s over 40 per cent of ‘illegitimate’ children were dying before their first birthday in these homes. In Bessborough, one of the largest homes, the mortality rate was as high as 75 per cent in 1943, and nearly 1,000 children died there during a 76-year period.
Nearly all the mothers gave up their children for adoption or foster care in orphanages run by Catholic nuns. Those who wished to keep their children were usually prevented from doing so.
Around 1,600 babies were sent abroad for adoption, mainly to the United States. Some survivors said the adoptions were arranged in exchange for fees or donations. Adult children were prevented from tracking down their birth mothers and many have faced life-long discrimination.
“The psychology of being a ‘bastard’ is deep in the Irish psyche and has stayed with me throughout my life,” said one man who was born in one of the homes.
The investigation began six years ago after Catherine Corless, an amateur historian, uncovered a mass grave in a sewage system at The Bon Secours mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway in 2014. Corless said she had been haunted by childhood memories of skinny children. The report said that 802 children died at Tuam between 1921 and 1961, and most were just a few months old. No register of burials was kept.
The report included accounts from nearly nine hundred survivors who would testify only if they could remain anonymous. One mother said she was told by a nun: “God doesn’t want you … You’re dirt.” Others said they had been “slapped, beaten and punched with nuns shouting at them that this was their penance for sinful behaviour.”
The women lived in cramped quarters and experienced traumatic labours without any pain relief. Several dozen children were also used without consent for scientific experiments to develop vaccines for polio, measles and diphtheria.
The report stated that while mother-and-baby homes existed in other countries the proportion of unwed mothers who were in the institutions in Ireland was probably the highest in the world.
The homes were the subject of the 2013 Oscar-nominated film Philomena, starring Judi Dench, which portrayed the efforts of Philomena Lee to find her adult son whom she was forced to give up as an unwed teen.
Apologies from Church & State
Eamon Martin, the Roman Catholic primate of all Ireland, led statements from bishops and nuns that apologised for the central role his church had played in a “profound and generational wrong” done to survivors:
“I accept that the church was clearly part of that culture in which people were frequently stigmatised, judged and rejected. For that, and for the long-lasting hurt and emotional distress that has resulted, I unreservedly apologise.
“As soon as women and children went into these places, society didn’t seem to want to know any more, be they living or dead,” he added.
The archbishop said that the church could “show our apologies are sincere by being willing to contribute” to a compensation scheme.
The Sisters of Bon Secours religious order, which ran the notorious home in Tuam, where children’s bodies had been buried in a disused septic tank, said: “We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way. For all that, we are deeply sorry.”
Corless, the historian who helped uncover the Tuam scandal, welcomed the apology and urged the nuns to let the human remains be exhumed and DNA tested.
Many survivors hope that once the remains of children from various homes have been identified, they would be given a dignified reburial and memorialisation.
Speaking a day after the report was published, Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin apologized to the survivors:
“For the women and children who were treated so cruelly we must do what we can, to show our deep remorse, understanding and support. And so, on behalf of the government, the state and its citizens, I apologise for the profound generational wrong visited upon Irish mothers and their children who ended up in a mother and baby home or a county home. The State failed you. Each of you deserved so much better.”
Colm O’Gorman, executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland said, “The government has to make good on its commitment that victims and survivors will be able to access their personal records and data. It must put in place a full and proper redress and reparation system and process.”
Northern Ireland
Amnesty says there were more than a dozen mother-and-baby institutions in Northern Ireland. It said about 7,500 women and girls gave birth in the Northern Ireland homes, operated by both Catholic and Protestant churches and religious organisations. A government official said that a research report on these homes is likely to be published by the end of January. TAP
– Various sources including The Irish Times, The Globe and Mail,
and the BBC.
