Latest news with #motherandbabyhomes
Irish Times
13 hours ago
- General
- Irish Times
Other burial sites must be identified, says survivors' advocate after exhumation preparation begins in Tuam
Further work must be carried out to identify burial sites of those who died in the care of religious institutions as part of the nation's healing process, the special advocate for survivors, Patricia Carey, has said. Welcoming the preparatory exhumation works now under way in Tuam, Ms Carey said she had been approached by institutional survivors who said they wished to know where their children had been buried. 'There is a need for further forensic regulations to identify the burial grounds for all those who died in institutions,' she said. Ms Carey was speaking at an event in Tralee, Co Kerry, on Thursday where she met survivors of industrial schools, reformatories, mother and baby homes and other institutions. READ MORE She said there had been deaths in all of Ireland's institutions and it was important such burial grounds were identified. Since her appointment in March last year, Ms Carey has been approached by mothers and siblings of those who were born and subsequently died in mother and baby homes and other institutions but were never told where they were buried. She said they were not looking for exhumations but simply to find out where children were buried so they could visit. Will the Tuam excavation finally bring closure to families? Listen | 20:07 'Tuam is very welcome and it has taken a long time for the works to commence,' she said. 'However – and I've said this to Minister [for Children Norma] Foley – we are an honourable and kind nation, and as an Irish people we honour and respect our dead. So why can't we respect the dead in our institutions?' She has contacted Ms Foley, requesting that all such sites be memorialised. [ Analysis: How Tuam, synonymous with a dark side of Irish history, can finally 'do the right thing' Opens in new window ] 'The burial grounds must be identified,' she 'strongly' pointed out to the Minister. Ms Carey also called for the centralisation of related records, saying there was no reason for them to remain in the custody of religious orders.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Mother and baby homes survivors 'excluded again' by Executive Bill
A bill to establish a redress scheme for victims of mother and baby homes has been criticised by a survivor as it excludes "thousands" of women and children who McCollum was one of thousands of children born to unmarried mothers in Northern Ireland who were sent to institutions. More than 10,000 pregnant women and girls passed through the secretive institutions, which were largely run by religious orders, from the 1920s until the 1990s.A bill to establish an inquiry into mother and baby homes, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses - and an associated redress scheme - passed its first stage in Stormont Assembly on Monday. 'No rational' Mark McCollum was born in Marianvale and then taken across the border to an orphanage in County said survivors were "astonished yesterday at the omissions" in the bill."There's an arbitrary date for exclusion of... 29 September 2011, so anybody that died prior to that are not going to be included in the process," he said."That excludes thousands of potential women and girls and their adoptive children who passed away."What is the justification for that other than saving money," he said, adding: "There's no rational for this." Mr McCollum said before seeing the bill, there was "a sense of optimism" but that is no longer the added that mothers and adoptees have "been silenced and stigmatised for so long" and it feel likes they've "been excluded again".He also said the bill "undermines its potential to deliver truth, acknowledgment and justice for the survivors". What is in the bill? It comes after a consultation on proposals to establish an inquiry into mother-and-baby homes was launched last Executive Bill will establish a statutory public inquiry and a statutory redress estimated cost is £80m, which includes almost £60m in initial redress payments to cover approximately 6,600 redress eligible person will receive a payment of £10,000 and a £2,000 payment will be made to each eligible family member on behalf of a loved one who has died since 29 September 2011.A further Individually Assessed Payment (IAP) for the specific harm suffered by an individual will follow the public executive office said a process was already underway to appoint a designate chair of the inquiry. 'Sincere commitment' First Minister Michelle O'Neill said: "These institutions and practices were a product of systemic misogyny. The regime inflicted on women and girls, many while heavily pregnant, was appalling and constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." She added that not only did women have their rights "grossly denied within these institutions, so too did their children, now adults. They too were failed on every level."O'Neill said that the legislation hopefully demonstrates a "sincere commitment" to those "have suffered and been silenced". She thanked those who campaigned for justice. Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said: "We deeply regret the pain and suffering of victims and survivors and today is a testament to their courage as we introduce this important and significant legislation."She added that victims have waited long for answers and that they will "seek to uncover the truth and hold those responsible to account"."We remain committed to addressing this dark period of our past and we want to encourage everyone affected to come forward and be heard," she said. What were the mother-and-baby homes? There was once a network of institutions across the island of Ireland which housed unmarried women and their babies at a time when pregnancy outside marriage was viewed as were more than a dozen such mother-and-baby homes in Northern of them had Catholic-run workhouses known as Magdalene Laundries, where women frequently had to do exhausting, unpaid found that a third of those admitted were under the age of 19, with the youngest child to be admitted aged 12. A number were the victims of sexual crime, including rape and incest, and "strenuous physical labour" was expected of residents late into their women and girls were separated from their children by placing them in children's homes, boarding them out (fostering) or through was also the issue of the cross-border movement of women and children in and out of the last institution in Northern Ireland closed in 1990.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
How Tuam, synonymous with a dark side of Irish history, can finally ‘do the right thing'
The laughter and shouts of children playing filled the air outside Trinity Primary School in Tuam, Co Galway , during break time on Monday morning. Further along the Dublin Road, just a short walk away, there is a very different playground. Under this site, it is believed that hundreds of children could be buried in a mass grave. Mother and baby homes now seem a world away but, not that long ago, they were to be found in towns across the country. In recent years, the name of Tuam has become synonymous with an Ireland of the past - a place which treated children born outside of marriage, and the women who gave birth to them, as problems that needed to be hidden. READ MORE They were often shipped off to live in mother and baby institutions , kept behind high walls. Out of sight and, largely, out of mind. 'They didn't matter in life, and they didn't matter in death,' local historian Catherine Corless said of past attitudes towards 'illegitimate' children. [ Catherine Corless: 'I was told more often than not that I was giving Tuam a bad name' Opens in new window ] Her research set off a chain of events which culminated in more 'walls' being built in Tuam this week but, this time, it is about 'doing the right thing', Ms Corless said. Access to the site of the town's former mother and baby home is being fenced off ahead of an excavation due to start in mid-July . The goal is to locate remains and, where possible, identify them so families can give their loved ones a dignified burial. It has taken a long time to get to this point. In May 2014, the Irish Daily Mail published research by Ms Corless which indicated that almost 800 babies and infants may be buried at the site. In the 11 years since, Ms Corless has become the name most associated with the site. Those years would prove she is a formidable force, but also as a naturally shy person, she initially found the level of public attention difficult. 'It was gruelling at times,' she said in Tuam on Monday. People would stop her in the supermarket and complain about what she was doing. 'I got that so many times, and it really upset me.' She was told she was 'giving Tuam a bad name' and 'tarnishing everyone' in the town. She said people would also stop her relatives and tell them 'she shouldn't be doing that, it's wrong, leave them there, it's terrible what she's doing'. While she has also received a lot of support, Ms Corless said the negative comments have not stopped. On Sunday, a man living in the US emailed her saying: 'You're about as credible as Santa Claus. You're a disgrace. I hope those nuns bring you to court.' From the beginning, she had known she was facing an uphill battle. 'My husband Aidan – he was very uneasy at the start because he said, 'You're taking on the State and you're taking on the [Catholic] Church, the biggest, the most powerful people in Ireland. And still, he backed me.' A truck delivers equipment to the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co Galway, ahead of impending excavation works. Photograph: Andrew Downes/xposure Despite the setbacks, Ms Corless said the treatment of the babies and the lack of dignity in their burial was 'too horrific' for her to walk away. 'All those lovely little children and babies, that's the one thing that drove me. That's all that was in my mind – these babies are in a sewage system, they have to come out.' Siobhán Holliman, editor of the Tuam Herald newspaper, said some local people may have 'felt they were being blamed for something that they had nothing to do with', especially when international media descended on the town after the revelations were first published. However, most people are now 'supportive of what's going on', said Ms Holliman. 'Once people realised the extent of it, how many babies and infants died there, how many remains are up there – it's not a situation that can just be left. 'It's part of the town's history; you can't ignore history.' A test excavation in 2017 discovered a significant amount of human remains in what appeared to be a decommissioned sewage chamber. Ms Holliman said that while life has continued in the town since then, things felt somewhat 'on hold' while people waited for the full excavation to begin. The process is expected to take two years, but she hopes it will finally bring 'some closure for the relatives, the survivors, the town, and residents up there'. Most people in the street on Monday did not want to talk. Others said what happened at the institution was 'terrible' and they were happy the excavation work is finally set to begin. 'It's about time,' said one man, who did not wish to be named. 'The poor babies.'
News.com.au
3 days ago
- News.com.au
796 dead babies hidden in septic tank at home run by nuns: ‘Dirty little secrets'
A quiet, walled patch of grass in the middle of an Irish housing estate is set to reveal the latest disturbing chapter in Ireland's 'mother and baby' home scandal. Beneath the ground at this peaceful spot in the town of Tuam, 220km west of Dublin, significant quantities of human remains have been identified. The land, attached to a home run by nuns between 1925 and 1961, was left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972. But on Monday, excavation crews will seal off the site before beginning the search for remains next month. 'There are so many babies, children just discarded here,' local historian Catherine Corless told AFP at the site. It was her discovery of the unmarked mass burial site that led to an Irish Commission of Investigation into the so-called mother and baby homes. In 2014, the now 71-year-old produced evidence that 796 children, from newborns to a nine-year-old, died at Tuam's mother and baby home. Her research pointed to the children's likely final resting place: a disused septic tank discovered in 1975. 'There are no burial records for the children, no cemetery, no statue, no cross, absolutely nothing,' said Corless. It was only in 2022 that legislation was passed in parliament enabling the excavation work to start at Tuam. 'It's been a fierce battle, when I started this nobody wanted to listen, at last we are righting the wrongs,' said Corless. 'I was just begging: take the babies out of this sewage system and give them the decent Christian burial that they were denied,' she added. In findings published in 2021, the Commission of Investigation found 'disquieting' levels of infant mortality at the institutions. Women pregnant outside of wedlock were siloed in the so-called mother and baby homes by society, the state and the Catholic Church, which has historically held an iron grip on Irish attitudes. After giving birth at the homes, mothers were then separated from their children, often through adoption. The state-backed inquiries sparked by the discoveries in Tuam found that 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such homes over 76 years. The commission report concluded that 9000 children had died in the homes across Ireland. Often church and state worked in tandem to run the institutions, which still operated in Ireland as recently as 1998. Homes were run in various ways - some funded and managed by local health authorities and others by Catholic religious orders like the Bon Secours nuns who managed the Tuam home. 'All these babies and children were baptised but still the church turned a blind eye. It just didn't matter, they were illegitimate, that's the stance that they took,' Corless said. Analysis at the Tuam site in 2016 and 2017 identified human remains in underground cavities. A commission of investigation later concluded that they were in a disused sewage tank. But it was only in 2022 that legislation was passed in parliament enabling the works to start there. For Anna Corrigan, 70, who was in her mid-50s when she learned that her late mother gave birth in secret to two boys, John and William, in Tuam, the slow process has been 'justice, Irish-style'. As no death certificate was ever issued for William, and John's death was not medically certified, the few official documents Corrigan has been able to access have left her with more questions than answers. In her kitchen she showed AFP a copy of a 1947 inspection report of the Tuam home. It described John as 'a miserable emaciated child', even though he was born healthy a year earlier. Both could be buried in Tuam according to Corrigan while William may also have been illegally adopted out of the country. 'They prevaricate, they obfuscate, they make it difficult for people to get to the truth,' she said. 'There are dirty little secrets in Ireland that have to be kept hidden, Ireland has a wholesome reputation around the world but there's also a dark, sinister side,' she said. A team was finally appointed in 2023 to lead the Tuam site excavation, tasked with recovering, memorialising and reburying remains recovered at the site once the work starts. Sample DNA will be taken from people who have reasonable grounds to believe they are a close relative. 'I never thought I'd see the day that we'd get over so many hurdles - push them to finally excavate what I call the 'pit', not a grave,' said Corrigan. 'I'm glad it's starting, but if we can even find and identify a certain amount it's not going to give us all closure,' she said.
CTV News
4 days ago
- Health
- CTV News
Officials in Ireland to exhume remains of hundreds of babies found at unwed mothers' home
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin talks to the media outside the government building in Dublin, Jan. 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File) Warning: The following story contains graphic details. LONDON - Officials in Ireland began work Monday to excavate the site of a former church-run home for unmarried women and their babies to identify the remains of around 800 infants and young children who died there. The long-awaited excavation at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway in western Ireland, is part of a reckoning in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country with a history of abuses in church-run institutions. The home, which was run by an order of Catholic nuns and closed in 1961, was one of many such institutions that housed tens of thousands of orphans and unmarried pregnant women who were forced to give up their children throughout much of the 20th century. In 2014, historian Catherine Corless tracked down death certificates for nearly 800 children who died at the home in Tuam between the 1920s and 1961 — but could only find a burial record for one child. Investigators later found a mass grave containing the remains of babies and young children in an underground sewage structure on the grounds of the home. DNA analysis found that the ages of the dead ranged from 35 weeks gestation to 3 years. A major inquiry into the mother-and-baby homes found that in total, about 9,000 children died in 18 different mother-and-baby homes, with major causes including respiratory infections and gastroenteritis, otherwise known as the stomach flu. The sisters who ran the Tuam home had offered a 'profound apology' and acknowledged that they had failed to 'protect the inherent dignity' of women and children housed there. 'It's a very, very difficult, harrowing story and situation. We have to wait to see what unfolds now as a result of the excavation,' Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Monday. Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the exhumation of the babies' remains at Tuam, said that survivors and family members will have an opportunity to view the works in coming weeks. 'This is a unique and incredibly complex excavation,' he said in a statement, adding that the memorial garden at the site will be under forensic control and closed to the public from Monday. Forensic experts will analyze and preserve remains recovered from the site. Any identified remains will be returned to family members in accordance with their wishes, and unidentified remains will be buried with dignity and respect, officials said. The work is expected to take two years to complete. Article by Sylvia Hui.
