Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes

The_Conductor

Good afternoon all,

This afternoon is the afternoon that the report into Mother and Baby Homes has launched.

The entire report, including executive summaries and a chapter by chapter descriptions can be found here

The entire report as a 3000 page document can be downloaded as a single file here

The Department have launched dedicated counselling and support phone lines for the former residents of Mother and Baby homes link here

Its incredibly difficult to read even small snippets of the report- please look after yourselves everyone.

Best wishes to everyone.

TaurenDruid

The_Conductor wrote: »

Its incredibly difficult to read even small snippets of the report- please look after yourselves everyone.

This. Could only read bits of it in small segments, then had to close it and come back to it later. Then made the mistake of opening the RTÉ News app.

I'm honestly shocked at how poor the report is. Utter ****e, like "little evidence to show women were abused or mistreated" - then detailing that abuse and mistreatment on page after page.

Some of the recommendations are bizarre. What, exactly, is supposed to be achieved by just blankly waiting for six months from when someone applies for their birth cert to when they're given it?

The_Conductor

The apology read in the Dáil went further than I suspected it might- however, it must be backed up actions.
Lets see what the various arms of the Irish state do, to try and assist all of those affected by the Mother and Baby Homes.

TaurenDruid

The apology is completely premature and meaningless, until such time as they've actually acted. Access to information, birth certs, reparation, and counselling (but only for those that want it - no "mandatory counselling session if you want your birth cert"). Until then, it's just waffle.

clairevoyant

I find it utterly repulsive that the church want the government to provide "compensation"

I am somewhat confused as to how compensation will help these people......you cannot buy their dignity back

it would be remiss NOT to say that society as well as the church and state failed these women and children and in a lot of cases their own families

my own sister could very easily have been sent to one of these places if my father wasn't alive and not afraid of The Clergy. My mother wanted her out of sight and found her "situation" shameful - yet didn't find it shameful to offer her money for an abortion

Hermy

Deeply disappointing that government are taking the line that society was to blame rather than hold those individuals who were culpable to account.

The_Conductor

Of course the church are to blame, they imagine that they'll get another sweetheart deal out of the government after the manner in which they conned the government and the Irish taxpayers the last time round.

The report only looks at 18 of the 197 identified mother and baby homes- and some of the largest ones alongside adoption agencies such as the CPRSI and SPG are not covered at all.

This report- while voluminous, is more notable for its appalling tone and its missing the 89% of such institutions- than it is in giving any manner of a reasonable narrative on what happened back then.

No- it wasn't society's fault- it was the fault of the catholic church to which it appears everyone, including the Irish politicians, were in thrall.

Today's politicians need to grow some gonads, and inform the Irish catholic church that its properties are being taken, en mass, and turned into public spaces for the people of today and tomorrow, to enjoy- but also to remember, how our mothers, and we ourselves, were failed, first and foremost by the catholic church.

Thankfully- the country no longer seems to be in thrall to, well anyone- however, this does not excuse the lack of a fair and reasonable narrative on what happened- and we do not yet have that fair and reasonable narrative, we have a white washed document that seeks to apportion blame to nameless entities- such as societal norms- rather than looking at why society had these 'norms' and how can the propogators of these norms be brought to justice.

Justice, for adopted people, means our rights as members of Irish society have to be acknowledged. We have to be given our birth certificates and all information that is on file as it pertains to us as individuals. We also need to have a properly resourced contact tracing system- and we do not want to be preached at with demands such as 'no we won't help you until you do a reunion course in Barnados' or some such bullcrap.

As for the tome they are foisting on us- the presumption is that no-one is going to read 3,000 pages, so its safe as a document. Even the sodding executive summary is 200 pages long.

The more I've read of it- the angrier I am.

The_Conductor

There are printed copies of the report (both an initial executive summary (running to some 200-300 pages, and a subsequent series encompassing the entire report) to be made available to all previous residents of the 18 institutions covered by the Report (including babies born there).

Please see details on how to request a printed executive summary and the whole report (if required- please don't request it, if you don't intend to read it) here

Note: when contacting the Department do not forget to include a statement to satisfy their GDPR requirements, specifically giving them permission to share your details with third parties for the purpose of facilitating your request. If you do not satisfy this requirement, you do not get the printed copy of the report, period.

I would suggest people only request the executive summary in the first instance- and once you've read it, decide at that stage whether or not to apply for the entire report.

Claw Hammer

In the society of the time, having a member of the family give birth out of wedlock was seen as a failure by the family to maintain proper control over the girl and a failure to rear her properly. Girls and single young women were subject to strict curfew and chaperone regimes to try and ensure they did not become pregnant.

TaurenDruid

The_Conductor wrote: »

There are printed copies of the report (both an initial executive summary (running to some 200-300 pages, and a subsequent series encompassing the entire report) to be made available to all previous residents of the 18 institutions covered by the Report (including babies born there).

Please see details on how to request a printed executive summary and the whole report (if required- please don't request it, if you don't intend to read it) here

Note: when contacting the Department do not forget to include a statement to satisfy their GDPR requirements, specifically giving them permission to share your details with third parties for the purpose of facilitating your request. If you do not satisfy this requirement, you do not get the printed copy of the report, period.

I would suggest people only request the executive summary in the first instance- and once you've read it, decide at that stage whether or not to apply for the entire report.

The report is also available online.

StarryPlough01

Support the Mother & Baby Home Survivors/Boarded out, Call to ‘Re-address the Redress’

https://www.change.org/p/irish-government-support-the-mother-baby-home-survivors-boarded-out-call-to-re-address-the-redress

Emer Quirke started this petition to Irish Government

Support Mother and Baby Home Institutional Victims/Survivors and those Boarded-Out, in their fight against the Irish Government’s Proposed Discriminatory Redress Scheme

                                              “Re-Address the Redress”

At the beginning of 2021, the Irish Government’s Commission of Investigation into the operations of the former Mother and Baby Homes, was published. The Commission’s report produced and International outcry against its failure to fully report on the conditions and abuse, that the former detainees suffered, during their time spent within these Institutions.

The Irish Government issued an apology and set out to deal with over 20 recommendations offered by the Commission of Investigation.

One such recommendation related to the design and publication of a Mother and Baby Home Redress Scheme. The Scheme was published in November 2021 and immediately attracted another outcry against its failure to follow the views and wishes of not only the Victims/Survivors & Families but also of the Consulting Firm commissioned to examine the issues by the Irish Government.

From the structure of the Redress Scheme, it can be seen that many former detainees have been disbarred, disallowed or disadvantaged from being able to access the scheme, or to receive fuller benefits. For example those whom the Scheme now fails include:

•  Children who spent less than 6 months within a Mother and Baby Home Institution along with the failures/illegality in their adoptions, this would include:

•  Children who spent less than six months in any Institution/County Home;

•  Children who spent any time in any other Institution/Other Facility/GP Surgery/Holding Centre for Adoption/Private Nursing Homes and all Hospitals, etc;

•  Children born in the UK, but brought back to Ireland with or without their mothers and placed in a separate Institution or Boarded-Out directly;

•  Children whose parent(s) may have passed away and were placed for a period of less than six months in an Institution, or for any period in another Institution or a setting not mentioned within the scheme;

•  Those trafficked between institutions and across jurisdictions for the purpose of Illegal/Illicit Adoptions;

•  Women who spent less than 6 months being offered a derisory sum for their incarceration and work therein;

•  On the question of derisory sums, despite all calls not to do so, the Irish Government has created a tariff-table of awards, which fails to adequately represent a correct loss of earnings and appropriate compensation to all those incarcerated for the stated periods;

•  Children who were 'boarded out' often at age 4 or 5, with the State responsible for their welfare up to the age of 16. These children are unable to make a claim, based on that ‘extra’ time outside the Institution, when they were separated from their parent(s) and in many cases, suffering psychological hurt from that separation, isolation, stigma, or worse, abuse;

•  The Redress Scheme spectacularly fails to acknowledge the many former detainees of the Mother & Baby Homes who died before 31/1/21. This arbitrary cut-off date provides no recognition for their suffering and prevents surviving families from seeking access to the scheme on behalf of their estates (Note the details of the Scheme);

•  The partial disbarring of those affected by their time in other Institutions from making an application to the scheme, again, no recognition is provided to them or their families;

•  The failure to deliver an immediate equal interim payment to all despite the unanimous opinion of all Victim/Survivor & Campaigning Groups.

This petition calls on the Irish Government to listen to the voices of the Victims/Survivors and their Families, to abandon the narrow fiscal route taken by the government in the construction of the Redress Scheme. We call on the Irish Government to restore the many Victims/Survivors and their Families barred by the structure of the Scheme and to fully restore them into the scheme. We demand that the Irish Government creates a Redress Scheme through a greater inclusion, recognising the various categories of harm suffered, and by reference, to correct the financial structure of the scheme, so delivering the Transitional Justice that was promised to the Victims/Survivors and the Families.

We thank you for supporting the petition created by the Tuam Mother & Baby Home Alliance; we ask if you could please circulate our call for support amongst your family and friends.

Tuam Mother and Baby Home Alliance

StarryPlough01

Support Call for the Immediate Exhumation of Children's Human Remains at Tuam M&B home

https://www.change.org/p/irish-government-support-call-for-the-immediate-exhumation-of-children-s-human-remains-at-tuam-m-b-home

Emer Quirke started this petition to Irish Government

Support the Call for an immediate Exhumation, Coronial Investigation, Identification of the Human Remains, that lay under the former Tuam Mother & Baby Home Institution

In 1975, the first Human Remains were discovered on the site of the former Tuam Mother and Baby Home Institution. In the following period there were growing concerns about the possibility of high death rates along with inappropriate burials expressed to media and other sources.

Such was the outcry against these findings, along with further confirmation, that up to 796 Childrens remains rested within the grounds of the former Institution, contained within a sewage-system or within other parts of the property.; they were in effect classed as ‘disappeared’. In 2014, the Irish Government called for a Commission of Investigation into the operation of Mother & Baby Homes. In 2016, as a result of Public pressure, the Commission began the process of test excavations on the former site.

In 2017, the Commission of Investigation announced that there were: “significant quantities of human remains” found within the site; the then Taoiseach described the findings as amounting to a “Chamber of Horrors”. In 2018, the Irish Government announced that they would cause for a forensic excavation of the site and that each child would be exhumed, identified and given a ‘respectful’ burial.

The 5th Interim report of the Commission of Investigation concluded that the burials: “did not provide for the dignified interment of human remains”.

In 2020, the Irish Government introduced a ‘Burials Bill’ to facilitate the Exhumation of the Tuam and other similar sites across Ireland. The Bill has been severely criticised by Campaigners for its shortcomings such as, failing to utilise existing legislation to achieve the same goals. One area of deep concern relates to the dis-application of the role of the Coroner and thereby the prospect of a full investigation into the deaths of the Children.

In the absence of any urgency from the Irish Government, the Families of the Lost Children, and surviving Family Members, who have yet to receive confirmation that a family member is interred within these grounds, anxiously wait to hear when they will be reunited with their kin.

We are calling for the following:

•   That the Irish Government rethinks its proposed Burials Bill and listen to the voices of the families of the disappeared Children and Mothers;

•   That the Irish Government presents an immediate and clear timetable when the Exhumations for the Tuam Mother and Baby Home site will commence;

•   That timetable should also set out when Exhumations will begin at other sites;

•   That a full Topography & Analysis of the entire site of the former Tuam Mother & Baby Home (including the tarmacked areas, playground, grassed areas and the shrine area), be carried out before any Exhumations commence;

•   That the State obtains the services of Internationally renowned Forensic and Anthropological Archaeologists;

•   That the Local Coroner and An Garda Síochána be fully engaged during the Exhumation and Investigations thereafter;

•   That all bodies so found are fully accounted for and where possible, their causes of death are established;

•   That the bodies found have their DNA extracted and that the Irish Government creates an International Public Information Campaign to find and identify surviving relatives;

•   That any reinternment is carried out with the full wishes of surviving family members and where none exist, for Victim/Survivor Groups to be consulted fully;

•   That the full outcome of the Exhumations are set out in a Public record, including the methodology and actions taken by the Coroner and the An Garda Síochána, to hold those either individually or corporately responsible to account.

We thank you for supporting the petition created by the Tuam Mother & Baby Home Alliance; we ask if you could please circulate our call for support amongst your family and friends.

Tuam Mother and Baby Home Alliance

                                     

munchkin_utd

The site at Tuam is to be excavated and bodies recovered by forensic archaeologists . Theres a good chance that bones will be mixed up so they'll need to do DNA tests to piece back the skeletons together. It'll take time but it seems they are going about it the right way.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2023/06/04/every-little-bone-the-difficult-exhumation-ahead-at-tuams-former-mother-and-baby-home/