Mother and Baby Homes

[BessboroughBaby]

Some of the report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes has been leaked.
We now have Joan Burton, an adoptee and ex Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection bleating writing in an article in the Irish Independent about the fact that Ireland is one of the few countries in the world that denies people their right to know of their origins.
This right was given to adoptees in the UK in the 70s fgs.
Joan Burton was in Government for years, she was second in command as Tánaiste, her Labour party held a balance of power.
Why didn't she change things ?

We'll get public apologies from MM etc which are totally worthless unless things change and soon.

Rant over

I agree @123MothergotafleA
Catherine Corless deserves recognition- we don't have an honours system here, if there was one it would probably have been corrupted by our rotten politicians and their benefactors,
Perhaps some international humanitarian prize - does the Swedish Nobel system have anything like that or Amnesty International ?

I would settle for a Nobel Prize Lady Eloise!
I fear you are right about the Irish politicians tendency to corruption.
"The Church" is not far behind them either!

There is a Global Humanitarian Award ???

@BessboroughBaby I don't have the words to tell you what I think of those mother and baby "homes".
Evil does not even begin to cover it. I really hope a redress system is provided swiftly for all survivors.

@SionnachRua I thought of that man today too- I remember watching that programme with tears streaming down my face and willing him to say it all, every last word, so that people would take heed and listen.
Catherine Corless deserves huge recognition and thanks for her work.
I feel sickened tonight.

That video clip shared earlier on is harrowing but necessary viewing so that we know what life was like for the children and mothers in institutions. No soul should be treated to that torture. Just sickens me to think this was the case and it went on for many years. There are no words to describe the heartbreak and stomach wrenching emotions that this has churned up. What's worse is knowing there is no escape or relief for all those abused. That trauma scarring them mentally and emotionally for life. I'm just relieved that it is now exposed and people can speak their truth without shame, fear or stigma.

If you can, please listen to Catherine Connolly ( Leas Ceann Comhairle ) interviewed by Claire Byrne today on RTE 1 radio.
A powerful interview.
It might would restore your faith in politicians.

I wish I could do a link to it.

My heart is sore reading the report and peoples' experiences in comments on various platforms online. I have no words

I have been so moved by this poem by Mary Coll, titled "Laundry"

My grandfather sent everything to the nuns

for a thorough cleaning,

including my mother.

Fervently they washed away every stain,

hold us up to the light,

and there is hardly a trace of me left in her,

or her left in me.

Things are forever getting separated in the wash,

a fawn silk stocking,

a tiny pink sock with no matcher,

the price to be paid for getting your laundry done.

I think of the many children I knew who were adopted. I grew up in a MC Dublin suburb and knew four families, some neighbours, some through school, which were created through adoption. There were ten children in all.

This must be a really difficult time for them and for their adoptive parents. There must be all sorts of questions both for parents and the now grown children about the circumstances in which the babies were given up.

Could anyone tell me please why St. Patrick's Guild and the Catholic and Adoption Rescue Society were not included in the Commission Report yet they were two of the biggest agencies handling adoptions in Ireland.

Seems very odd !

Please please please could someone do a link to a piece on Broadsheet. It is in relation to the wonderful ( on this topic, I don't know her views/ opinions on anything else ) Catherine Connolly and her views on the report. She addresses Mary Mc Aleese's "...scholarly and profound.... " comments, which I thought were an utterly pathetic response to questions she was asked in an interview on the release of the response.
Wasn't her husband involved in a report on the Magdalen Laundries some years back ?

It's in today's Broadsheet app and features a photo of both Mary Mc Aleese and Catherine Connolly.
I am unable to do links.

Is this it? www.broadsheet.ie/2021/01/21/scholarly-and-profound/

It's a good article. I wonder why links won't work for you? Are you on mobile, iPad or a computer? Maybe someone here can help.

Thank you SionnachRua.
That's the one. It's a good read for anyone interested who is on this thread.
The reason I can't do links is that I am technologically inept.

Gosh, BessboroughBaby thank you for bringing this up. I hadn't seen the news yesterday; and thanks Sionnach for linking to it.

A very powerful speech by Catherine Corless.

" I will cite Dr. Hannah Arendt, who was speaking in a different context but whose words are equally applicable to this report. According to her, the person who says that we are all guilty, as was the case in Germany, is unknowingly covering up for the ones who did it.

That is why we should not generalise guilt because doing so would be to cover up for the guilty. "

I have to put my hand up on this; I have argued here and in real life, that placing the blame on "the nuns" or "the priests" is wrong. That society as a whole was complicit.
That if we dont accept a level of blame ourselves ( I include people living in Ireland today), then we cant understand the hurt of the "survivors" and change how structures operate today.

I can see what Catherine Corless says: there were people in the system who could have spoken up (there were a few who did).
Those who didn't should be asked hard questions.

An excellent speech by Catherine Connolly. Thank you for highlighting it.

Evil happens because good people do nothing.

I think the inclusion of Nazi Germany in comments is completely appropriate and the comparison needs to be further explored.

Ireland's bedrock assumptions based on class and sex, the dynamics of power, rampant nationalism, the values society used in identifying its heroes and heroines and their opposites, its culture of deference, attitudes toward authority and authorities, its core values and how they were arrived at - all should be compared with Germany in the interwar years and further back.

The families and homes that produced judges, civil servants, nuns, brothers, and priests of the era should be examined as much as it is possible for historians to manage. We cannot debate what is essentially, looking at it with today's insights into human behaviour, an enabling culture, without understanding its origins.

How did Ireland produce so many people who could be classed as 'authoritarian followers'?

iclinstitute.com/The_Authoritarians_--_Short_Synopsis.pdf

Is the Catholic Church now dead in Ireland? Surely it’s time to put an end to this benighted religion and its oppressed followers .

I'm.adoped child FM temple hill .it's the forgotten home in black rock why is this not on the list for compassion.there is tons of us . some sold of to the USA do we have the same right as the other mother and babies homes