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Two years after it was set up, what's happening with the mother and baby home inquiry?

This week Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone announced it will be two more years before the report is published.

25/09/2014. Mother and Baby Homes - Protest. (Cont Terry Harrison whose baby Nial John Dunne Kiernan was born in St Patrick's Navan in 1973. She never saw him again after that Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

TWO YEARS AGO Ireland was shaken by revelations about what had happened at a home for unmarried mothers and their children in Tuam.

After a local investigation revealed that many as 800 children were buried between 1925 and 1961, then minister for children and youth affairs Charlie Flanagan spoke of a situation “almost too graphic and horrible to believe”.

Young, innocent children, their lives so short and harrowing were, it seems, in death not even given a proper, decent or humane burial.

Appalling as the news of what happened at the home was, Tuam was symptomatic of a bigger problem.

“The history of mother and baby homes in Ireland in the early and middle decades of the 20th century reflects a brutally, unforgiving response by society, religions and state institutions,” he went on.

It’s now two years on, and this week Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone – Flanagan’s successor in the job – announced that an extension means that it will be almost another two years before a report lifting the lid on what happened at these homes is published.

With the horror of these incidents now faded from the headlines, just what is happening in the quest for justice for the survivors of Ireland’s mother and baby homes?

So what is happening exactly? 

While mass child graves are perhaps the most harrowing element of what the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes is examining, it is just one part of it.

When published, the report will take in a broad range of the injustices that happened at the home, including (but not limited to): child mortality rates, how women were admitted to the homes, how they were treated once there and burial arrangements.

Understandably, there are concerns that the campaign isn’t reaching everyone that is meant to hear about it.

“We are concerned about the lack of awareness of the committee’s procedures that seems to be out there,” a spokesperson for survivor advocacy group the Adoption Rights Alliance told TheJournal.ie. 

We are very concerned and we’ve called on the commission both here and abroad to increase advertising. We think there are a lack of understanding not only from people affected by the commission.

Children of the mothers in the homes who were put up for adoption, some of whom may not realise they are included under the terms of reference, are also being encouraged to come forward.

Another concern, the spokesperson said, is that the terms of reference currently limit the inquiry to 18 institutions (it had originally been 14). The ARA has called on the department to increase this to 170.

They are compartmentalising it with the 18 institutions. We are not sure that they are representative of all of the people who are coming forward as part of this.

Another group, the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors, has been more vocal in its opposition to the limiting of the terms of reference.

Last month the group held a protest outside the Dáil, saying that they were looking for a legal team to help them undertake a judicial review pro bono.

To date just over 500 people have expressed an interest in meeting with the committee, and over 150 hearings have been held at the commission’s office in Dublin and in people’s homes in areas as diverse as Galway, Cork, Donegal, Limerick and London.

How do people come forward to the report? 

Trying to understand who should be going forward to which committee is confusing.

With the project being as big as it is, three reports are being produced in tandem.

25/09/2014. Mother and Baby Homes - Protest. Pictu A protest over mother and baby homes outside the Dáil in 2014 Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie / RollingNews.ie

When finished, these will include a report of testimony of people who wished to remain anonymous as part of the process, a report looking at the social history that allowed mother and baby homes to come into existence, and – perhaps most centrally – the report looking at what actually happened at a sample of mother and baby homes around the country.

Coming forward and speaking about their experience can be a daunting prospect for many, and according to the spokesperson for Adoption Rights Alliance, people have had a difficult time making their voices heard.

“People may have gone to the confidential committee thinking they had gone to the investigation committee,” they said.

People who end up doing this don’t realise that their comments won’t end up actually being included in the final report.

Adoption Rights Alliance has set about tackling this issue by putting legal support in place for anyone who wants to come forward.

To do so, the support group has set up Clann, a joint initiative that will work with JFM Research to help survivors come forward and give evidence.

Free legal assistance is being given to the initiative by Hogan Lovells, a global law firm that will help those that come forward with making their representations.

I know it is quite a daunting process for people to think about giving evidence, this gives people support to gather their thoughts and put together their statements. It is quite difficult if you’re going in there with nothing prepared.

So what now? 

Anyone looking to come forward and make a representation now has more time, with the reports not due to be released until February 2018.

What exactly will be included when they are released is still unclear, however.

The investigation covers a period from 1922 right up to 1998, meaning there could be calls for prosecutions when the report is published in 19 months’ time.

“I don’t want to pre-empt the work of the commission,” said the Adoption Rights Alliance spokesperson.

We would encourage anyone who is aware of any wrongdoing and criminal activity to go forward to the gardaí and report it to them.

Read: Over 400 potential witnesses come forward after mother and baby homes appeal

Also: ‘I’ve got family at last’: Brothers born in mother and baby homes reunited after nearly 80 years

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29 Comments
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    Mute Moorooka Mick
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    Feb 26th 2019, 6:32 AM

    They will not last long with the local ‘happy campers”. They’ll figure out a way of hobbling the sat-tracking and cash-in.

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    Mute Dotty Dunleary
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    Feb 26th 2019, 6:58 AM

    @Moorooka Mick: Not unless the bicycles are made from pure steel :-)

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    Mute DJ François
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:42 AM

    @Moorooka Mick: they said the same about Dublin bike scheme but it didn’t happen

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    Mute Moorooka Mick
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    Feb 26th 2019, 12:44 PM

    @DJ François:
    You have obviously not lived in Sligo.

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    Mute Donncha
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    Feb 26th 2019, 6:19 AM

    I would warm Sligo Council to give any of the Chinese bike companies that approach them a very wide berth. Just look up Chinese bike mountains on Google Images to see how the “free bike” companies have worked out in China.

    Also, one of them set up in Stockholm at the end of last summer. Unilaterally, I would add as they never asked, they just did it. I’ve yet to see anyone use the bikes (partly I imagine it’s because the app that activates them looks like it was made by a colour-blind 6th class student learning to code). Despite the fact they’re close to unused, they are absolutely riddled with rust only six months later. I reckon they’re death traps at this point if someone hopped on one without a helmet.

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    Mute J.P. Ness
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:42 AM

    Sligo is too much of a kip to merit this scheme. It really is a bunghole of a place

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:45 AM

    @J.P. Ness: They’d regard you as an asset at the local tourist information office. Failte go Shligig.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Feb 26th 2019, 1:29 PM

    @J.P. Ness: I lived in Sligo for over 11 years. Despite not being a native, I very much consider Sligo to be home. Lots of friendly, welcoming, helpful people and, despite its small size, it has so much to offer in terms of music, arts, crafts, surfing, beaches, hiking, cycling trails, mountains, lakes, fishing, pubs, places to eat and festivals. A kip it most certainly is not. What it is, however, is lacking in funding proportional to other areas of the country, though, thankfully, some of that is being addressed finally.

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    Mute john doe
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    Feb 26th 2019, 2:52 PM

    ^^don’t feed the troll ^^

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    Mute Marcus Eugene
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:19 PM

    @J.P. Ness: Don’t feed the troll

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    Mute Dave Barrett
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:52 AM

    And while they are looking for free bikes let the old people with empty large houses get out and down size to free up houses for those looking for them. FG take take take.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:59 AM

    @Dave Barrett: first of all, what has a housing proposal by the government got to do with a bike scheme proposed by a local council? second of all, if the housing downsize scheme ever happens, it will be entirely optional. Go back to bed.

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    Mute John
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:29 AM

    @Dave Barrett: what’s wrong with older people in council houses downsizing.people are always screaming about the housing crisis but people in social housing don’t want to have to help in any way.they just want to scream BUILD HOUSES………a lot of older people(including my parents)in private housing downsized because of their needs,what’s wrong with people who have enjoyed very very cheap houses.

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    Mute MarkS
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    Feb 26th 2019, 11:14 AM

    @John: bit of a tangent there love.

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    Mute kehe
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    Feb 26th 2019, 7:55 AM

    Will they ever learn? Undocked bikes just end up vandalised and thrown in rivers, ditches, fields etc in any city or town that’s tried the scheme.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:19 AM

    @kehe: it doesnt happen much in Dublin. Can you name the towns in ireland where it has?

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    Mute Karen Wellington
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:02 AM

    @James Wallace: does Dublin have an undocked bike scheme? I thought they were all docked.

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:12 AM

    @Karen Wellington: no they have bleeperbike, an undocked scheme. I do agree a docked bike scheme would be preferable if they don’t already have one.

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    Mute Karen Wellington
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    Feb 26th 2019, 10:58 AM

    @James Wallace: didn’t know that, thanks for the info

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:42 AM

    In the mid-1960s student and other utopian radicals persuaded the Amsterdam authority to place ‘white bicycles’ strategically around the city centre. Anybody could use an available bike and leave it at a designated bike rack after use. The scheme lasted a short time. I hope the Sligonian authority has taken the Dutch example into consideration. Waar is mijn fiets?

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    Mute James Wallace
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    Feb 26th 2019, 10:19 AM

    @Garreth Byrne: that was before the days of mobile technology. The bikes these days, like the bleeper bikes in Dublin , require you to register a card and the bike is unlocked using smart technology and an app. No comparison to Amsterdam in the 60s. We should copy Amsterdam in the provision of safe segregated cycle tracks, though. That would work here.

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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:00 AM

    You will probably find the any bikes that go missing up in Dublin ,them lads using the bikes to escape ,only joking now I have ties there through marriage

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    Mute John
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    Feb 26th 2019, 9:14 AM

    @FlopFlipU: I wish some of the country people would escape from Dublin.might give us a bit more room.ha ha,only joking I have family down the country.

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    Mute Michael Drumm
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    Feb 26th 2019, 8:05 AM

    Shave a madra

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