Inquiry The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes

Website
https://www.gov.ie/en/collection/mbhcoi/#
Location
Ireland

Key Dates

1922 - 1998
Period of investigation
17 February 2015
Announcement date
2015 - 2021
Period of operation
June 2020
Interim Report
12 January 2021
Final Report

Details

"The Commission was established because of concerns that had been raised about what happened in mother and baby homes. A particular catalyst was the discovery by Catherine Corless of the possible burial arrangements for children who died in the Tuam Children’s Home." (Final Report Introduction § 6)

The broad aim was to establish the circumstances and arrangements for the entry of single women into these institutions, and the exit pathways on leaving them, the living conditions and care arrangements of the institutions, mortality amongst mothers and children, post-mortem practices and procedures in respect of children or mothers who died while resident, and systemic vaccine trials conducted on children.

Also to be examined were the arrangements for the entry of children into institutions in circumstances when their mother was not also resident, and for children who did not remain in the care of their parents, to examine exit pathways, principally via adoption.

The Process

The initial focus of the Commission was to establish what records and information were available, to investigate the Tuam site, and to establish the Confidential Committee (Final Report Introduction no. 7).

The Commission began by holding hearings regarding the Tuam site with relevant experts, former residents and local people in June 2015. In October 2015, the physical investigation of the Tuam site began. The subsequent investigations and results are described in the Commission’s Fifth Interim Report.

The Commission also set up the Confidential Committee to receive testimony from people who had been resident in the institutions under investigation or who worked in them. An advertising campaign in the press and radio encouraged people to contact the Committee. Everyone who wished to speak to the Confidential Committee was issued with an application form, which was completed by 673 people.

Governing Legislation
Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 (No. 23 of 2004)

Governing Authority
Proposed to the Government by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

Public Hearings
The Commission did not consider that public hearings were necessary.

Private Sessions

The Commission itself held a total of 195 hearings (64 former residents, 30 advocacy groups, 16 sisters and members of congregations, 14 experts, 22 social workers, 20 local authority and government officials, 6 workers in the institutions, 5 family members, 3 priests, 3 gardaí and 12 others).

Hearings of the Confidential Committee began in June 2015 and continued until February 2020. The purpose was to listen to the experiences of those who have spent time in Mother and Baby Homes. These can include mothers, children, nuns, workers, occasional workers (e.g. delivery men, painters etc.) and visitors to the home."

Written Submissions
Some people who were unable to come to the Confidential Committee submitted letters.

Witnesses

The Commission itself held hearings for 64 former residents, 30 advocacy groups, 16 sisters and members of congregations, 14 experts, 22 social workers, 20 local authority and government officials, 6 workers in the institutions, 5 family members, 3 priests, 3 gardaí and 12 others.

The Confidential Committee met with 549 people who were within the terms of reference, of whom 304 were resident as mothers, 228 were resident as babies/children and 17 were involved in other ways.

Most of the mothers who met the Confidential Committee entered the institutions between 1960 and 1989 (there were five from the 1940s, 13 from the 1950s and 13 from the 1990s). Most of the former child residents who gave evidence were in the institutions in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Institutions
14 Mother and Baby Homes and four county homes (successors to pre-independence workhouses) from across Ireland were specified for inquiry. Some, such as the county homes, were run by the local health authorities, others by religious orders. One, the Bethany Home was founded by a Protestant evangelical group.

Findings

There were about 56,000 unmarried mothers and about 57,000 children in the mother and baby homes and county homes investigated by the Commission, the number of admissions peaking in the 1960s and early 1970s. 5,616 of the mothers (11.4% of the total) were under 18 years of age. The Commission concluded that the proportion of Irish unmarried mothers who were admitted to mother and baby homes or county homes in the twentieth century was probably the highest in the world (Executive Summary §§1-2). It was found probable that the proportion of Irish unmarried mothers who were in mother and baby homes was the highest in the world, as was the rate of adoption of babies of unmarried mothers (§39).

The Commission found that women entered mother and baby homes and county homes because of lack of support from family and the child's father, absence of financial independence and a desire to protect privacy (§5), and that there was no coercion from church or State authorities (§8).

The death rate among infants in mother and baby homes was considerably higher than the national average. About 9,000 children (15%) died in the institutions under investigation. In the years before 1960 mother and baby homes appear to have significantly reduced their resident children's prospects of survival. The very high mortality rates were known to local and national authorities at the time and were recorded in official publications (§12)

The Commission found there was evidence of some abuse of children in a number of the institutions, but did not hear any evidence of sexual abuse of child residents. The women in mother and baby homes were subjected to emotional abuse, but the Commission found no evidence of the sort of gross abuse that occurred in industrial schools, and the number of complaints of physical abuse was small. "The women worked but they were generally doing the sort of work that they would have done at home" (§15).

Regarding adoption, introduced in 1953, very little evidence was found that children were forcibly taken from their mothers, and that it should not be considered as ‘forced’ adoption. The Commission stated that mothers had time after the initial placement for adoption to reassess the situation (Recommendations §34)

There was acknowledgement of the emotional abuse the women were subjected to and the lack of counselling provided to them, at least up to the 70s. It is stressed, however, that the lack of sympathy was typical of that of society at the time, and that conditions improved in all respects in the later decades (§§16-17). Conditions in the county homes were greatly inferior to the mother and baby homes and generally very poor (§18).

The Commission offered outlines of the regulation of mother and baby homes (§§20-24, ), the roles of local and national government (§§25-30), the influence of religion and religious organisations (§§31-34), finances (§§35-38).

There was considerable disquiet regarding the tenor of the Commission's findings. "Individuals who gave statements and affidavits have spoken of hurt, and incredulity, over the way their evidence has been treated. Recollections of cruelty at the hands of nuns, forced labour, illegal birth registrations and pressure to consent to adoption have at best been ignored, at worst treated with scepticism, and occasionally disbelief." (Claire Wills, LRB 43(10)). See the Draft Alternative Report.

Recommendations
The Commission made recommendations mainly on deficiencies in the information and tracing systems available to former residents of the institutions, and redress for the wrongs done to them.

Cost
€23 million was allocated for the Commission’s work; to 30 October 2020 the expenditure had been approximately €11.5.

Commissioners

Countries

Publications

Final Report

Reports

Journal Article

Acknowledgement: this summary was prepared by Katie Wright, La Trobe University