13 January 2021

Ireland Mother and Baby Home Report

Nine thousand children died in Ireland’s Mother and Baby Homes since Irish independence and 1998, In all, 15 percent of the approximately 57,000 children who were in the 18 institutions investigated by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission died during their time there. That's a finding from a long-awaited report 4,000 pages, including 1,000 pages of personal testimonies dated 30 October 2020 and released on Tuesday.

1,638  children from these institutions were placed for foreign adoption. 1,427 children were adopted to the USA; 149 to Great Britain; 39 to Northern Ireland; five to Canada; four to Saudi Arabia; two each to Australia, Egypt, Italy and Venezuela; one each to Guernsey, Germany, Serbia, Singapore, Norway and the Philippines.

The report includes the following chapters on individual institutions:

Chapter 13: Dublin Union/Pelletstown/St Patrick's, Navan Road/Eglinton Road
Chapter 14: Belmont Flatlets
Chapter 15: The Tuam Children’s Home
Chapter 16: The County Clare Nursery, Kilrush
Chapter 17: The Sacred Heart Mother and Baby Homes
Chapter 18: Bessborough
Chapter 19: Sean Ross
Chapter 20: Castlepollard
Chapter 21: Regina Coeli
Chapter 22: Bethany Home
Chapter 23: Denny House, formerly the Magdalen Asylum
Chapter 24: Dunboyne (Árd Mhuire)
Chapter 25: Miss Carr's
Chapter 26: The Castle
Chapter 27: St Gerard's
Chapter 28: Cork County Home
Chapter 29: Stranorlar County Home
Chapter 30: Thomastown County Home

The report mentions "Developments in DNA should be helpful in this regard (identification of parents) and consideration should be given to financially assisting those born in mother and baby homes/county homes who wish to avail of such a test."

A pdf copy of the report which can be searched in its entirety is available at
https://assets.gov.ie/118565/107bab7e-45aa-4124-95fd-1460893dbb43.pdf

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Canada has its own history with the sale of babies and the enormous number of their deaths while under care. Check out the book Butterbox Babies by Bette L Cahill. And it was RECENT. The butterboxes were used to bury the tiny corpses. Cheers anyway, BT