Taoiseach must follow state apology with supports for survivors
(Above) Paul Redmond at the site of the former mother and baby home in Castlepollard.
A survivor from the mother and baby home in Castlepollard says that unless the Taoiseach's state apology is backed up with “concrete actions” it will ring “hollow”.
The publication today of the long awaited final report from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes has been been met with “mixed feelings”, according to survivors, says Paul Redmond of the Catlepollard Mother and Baby home group.
Mr Redmond also called on the Taoiseach Michael Martin to follow the state apology with the introduction of a number of support measures for survivors, measures that they have been campaigning for for many years.
"The Taoiseach has let it be known that he intends to issue an apology on behalf of the state but they will be hollow words without concrete action to back them up. Illegally adopted people must have their basic human rights vindicated by the state immediately. They are entitled to the truth without further delay. The Coalition of Mother and Baby home Survivors (CMABS) will leave none of our adopted brothers and sisters behind and will continue to campaign until all survivors of forced adoption receive justice."
In a statement released this afternoon CMABS said that the report is “ incomplete as it ignores the larger issue of the forced separation of single mothers and their babies since the foundation of the state as a matter of official state policy”.
The CMABS statement also said that what happened in the homes could not be explained by misogyny.
“What occurred was but an aspect of the newly established state which was profoundly anti women both in its laws and in its culture and out of which emerged the Mother and Baby Homes. While it was wrong for families and others to send vulnerable unmarried pregnant girls to be incarcerated in Mother and Baby Homes, the homes were handsomely paid by the taxpayers of Ireland and the nuns and Protestant women who administered them on behalf of the state were not entitled to deprive the young girls of their legal and constitutional rights and the right to be treated with dignity and respect.
“We must not overlook the fact that the government and the Roman Catholic Church and Protestant churches ran the homes together hand in glove. What they did represents a damming indictment of Church and State. They jointly bear legal responsibility for the ill treatment and abuse and the gross breach of human rights that occurred in the homes, Catholic and Protestant alike. It is important to note that not all the homes were Catholic - particularly the Bethany Home and the Church of Ireland Magdalene Home (later renamed Denny House which was a Mother and Baby home). The former was run by Protestant evangelicals on behalf of all the Protestant churches, while the Church of Ireland ran the latter.
“We now call on the government to honour the commitments they have recently given to the survivors including enhanced medical cards and the long overdue funds for memorials for our crib mates who did not survive.”