‘Shocking’ report revealing abuse in Ireland’s mother and baby homes published

Irish premier Micheál Martin calls findings ‘difficult’ to read

Infants graveyard at Sean Ross Abbey in Tipperary, site of mother and baby home (PA)

A report into decades of abuse of women and children at the hands of religious-run mother and baby homes in Ireland has been released, with children’s minister Roderic O’Gorman saying it has exposed “a stifling, oppressive and brutally misogynistic culture”. 

The findings of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation was laid bare more than five years after it was set up, following several delays in publication.

Survivors of the mother and baby homes can now read about the number of children and babies who suffered abuse and died in the institutions under scrutiny, some of which were run by the state.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the report as “shocking” and “a dark, difficult and shameful chapter of very recent Irish history”. He added that he will issue a full state apology in the Dail on Wednesday. 

Mr Martin has also passed on the report to the director of public prosecutions to consider any criminality arising from it. 

The investigation was prompted by the discovery of a mass grave of up to up to 800 babies and children on the grounds of a home in Tuam, County Galway.

The commission was set up to investigate 14 mother and baby homes and another four state-operated county homes, and the long-awaited report will include around 1,000 pages of personal testimonies.

It is understood that up to 9,000 children died in these 18 institutions between 1922 and the closure of the last such home in 1998.

More than 56,000 mothers and 57,000 children went through Ireland’s mother and baby homes and county homes during the 20th century. They housed women and young girls who were pregnant outside of marriage.

The commission was established by the Irish government in 2015 following claims that the bodies of up to 800 babies and children were disposed of at an unmarked grave at a mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway.

It came following extensive research carried out by local historian Catherine Corless. She documented the deaths of 796 babies and children while the Bon Secours home was in operation.

Historian Catherine Corless at the site of Tuam mass grave for children (PA)

Tuam, run by members of the Bon Secours religious order of nuns, took in unmarried pregnant women who were usually brought there by family members. The mothers were then separated from their children, who were housed elsewhere in the home and raised by nuns until they were adopted without the mothers’ knowledge.

The commission examined many different issues, including how the women and children entered the homes, their living conditions and how they were treated, forced labour, physical and emotional abuse as well as forced adoptions.

The government has also faced criticism over its mishandling of the report last year. There was a huge backlash from survivors, campaigners and opposition parties after the government passed controversial legislation that would allow a database created by the commission to be sealed for 30 years.

There was widespread confusion over the legislation and whether survivors would get proper access to their records. But it will be made available for survivors to read on Wednesday after Mr Martin’s cabinet approve the commission’s final report today.

The Taoiseach said it was “regrettable” that the report were leaked to Ireland’s Sunday Independent newspaper before survivors and their families had the chance to read it. Mr Martin told the newspaper said it was “a shocking and difficult read”.