Q&A: What happens when Mother and Baby Homes report is published
Cork Cummins Mementoes At At And Childhood Placed Larry Bessboro, Sculpture Remembrance Picture: Plaque A
The long-awaited report into the Mother and Baby Homes is due out on Tuesday.
The Taoiseach and Children's Minister O'Gorman will meet survivors groups on Tuesday to discuss the report and will be guided by them on what steps should next be taken.
Here's everything you will need to know.
From 1922 until 1998, Mother and Baby Homes were institutions run by religious orders for single women who had become pregnant, sometimes as victims of incest or rape, to give birth.
These homes, which were scattered across the country, were often run by nuns and have become infamous for their cruelty to the women living there.
Survivors say they were treated as "unpaid servants" while being kept there against their will, often required to carry out menial labour, deprived of their liberty, independence, autonomy and subject to daily degradation.
Some women were told daily that they “were shameful and sinful” and that they “needed to atone” by working for their keep and surrendering their children to the nuns “for forced adoption," according to survivor Philomena Lee.
She recalls being “taunted” by the nuns during labour as a “punishment for promiscuity”.
After giving birth, the women were separated from their babies, many of which were sent for illegal adoption to the USA.
Women were often asked or expected to provide money for the upkeep of their children until they could be adopted, even if they themselves had left the home.
Those who requested to keep their children were refused.
While living in the homes, the children who remained were treated poorly, often sick and undernourished, and were often alienated from other children in their towns or villages when attending school.
Thousands of children died due to the neglect suffered while living in the homes.
The homes operated with full cooperation from successive Irish governments at the time and runaways were often returned by the Gardai.
After years of tireless work from local Galway historian Catherine Corless, the story broke nationally in 2014 that up to 800 infants and children had been buried in an underground septic tank on the grounds of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, located in Tuam, Co Galway.
A judicial commission of investigation was established in 2015 by the Irish government to investigate these claims as well an investigation into the records and practices of thirteen other Mother and Baby Homes and four "county homes", a fraction of the entire number of these institutions that operated throughout the country. The final report was due in February 2018, but has been granted a series of extensions.
The following 14 Mother and Baby Homes investigated are:
- Ard Mhuire, Dunboyne, Co Meath
- Belmont (Flatlets), Belmont Avenue, Dublin 4
- Bessboro (Bessborough) House, Blackrock, Cork
- Bethany Home, originally Blackhall Place, Dublin 7, and from 1934 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6
- Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, Tuam, Co Galway
- Denny House, Eglinton Road, Dublin 4, originally Magdalen Home, 8 Lower Leeson St, Dublin 2
- Kilrush, Cooraclare Road, Co Clare
- Manor House, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath
- Ms Carr’s (Flatlets), 16 Northbrook Road, Dublin 6
- Regina Coeli Hostel, North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7
- Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co Tipperary
- St Gerard’s, originally 39, Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1
- St Patrick’s, Navan Road, Dublin 7, originally known as Pelletstown, and subsequent transfer to Eglinton House, Eglinton Road, Dublin 4
- The Castle, Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal
Four county homes were also investigated:
- St Kevin’s Institution (Dublin Union)
- Stranorlar County Home, Co Donegal (St Joseph’s)
- Cork City County Home (St Finbarr’s)
- Thomastown County Home, Co Kilkenny (St Columba’s)
In 2017, the Commission of Investigation concluded that some remains in an underground structure in Tuam, which appeared to have been a septic tank, did contain remains of infants and children who died during the time period the mother and baby home was operating. Excavations carried out between November 2016 and February 2017 found a significant quantity of human remains, aged from 35 foetal weeks to two to three years, buried on the site.
The fifth interim report already flagged major concern about burials, including “major issues about burials arise in the cases of Bessborough (Cork) and Tuam (Galway)”.
“The burials of children who died in the three Sacred Heart Homes (Bessborough, Castlepollard and Sean Ross) are not recorded at all. More importantly, there is no certainty about where they are buried.” On Sunday, the Sunday Independent newspaper reported from the leaked final report that 9,000 children had died in the 18 institutions covered by the Commission's terms of reference, between 1922 and 1998 - an infant mortality rate of one in seven. It will include 1,000 pages of survivor testimony and will run to 3,000 pages. 56,000 mothers passed through the homes until the final closure in 1998 and 57,000 children were born there.
It was also announced that the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, would apologise to survivors on behalf of the state.
The cabinet will meet at 10am on Tuesday, where Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman will present the report to his colleagues.
At 1.30pm, Mr O'Gorman, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister of State Anne Rabbitte will meet virtually with a number of survivors groups and advocates where they will present the report.
The report will be published for the public at 3pm, and a full press conference with the Taoiseach and Mr O'Gorman will be held at 3.30pm.
When the Dáil convenes in Dublin's Convention Centre on Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin will make a full State apology to the women and children who suffered for decades.
A Government spokesperson confirmed that the Taoiseach will make the apology.
The Government will announce an interdepartmental group to explore a restorative justice programme, as well as legislation to protect the sites of the homes from redevelopment.
What happens after Wednesday?
Survivors of the Mother and Baby Home victims say a cash redress scheme must be implemented in order to compensate those who have suffered, similar to that given to the survivors of the Magdalene Laundries. The Taoiseach Micheál Martin has previously stated that the women and children “will not be found wanting” in the Government's response.
Mr Martin has promised “a comprehensive suite of measures” including institutional burials legislation and the commitment to create an archive of all the investigations of institutional abuse.