Report reveals horrors of the mother and baby homes
■ 9,000 children died in care ■ Mothers were taunted as they gave birth ■ Now minister scrambling for answers after report leaked
THE true horror of what happened in mother and baby homes, in one of the darkest chapters of our country’s history, has been revealed.
However, the revelations have been overshadowed by the premature release of details from the report, which has sparked anger in the Government, as it faces a politically fraught apology on the issue this week.
THE true horrors of mother and baby homes in Ireland will be revealed in a report that will find 9,000 children died in the institutions.
Over 56,000 women were sent to 18 different institutions between 1922 and 1998, but as many as one in seven of the 57,000 babies didn’t survive after being born there.
However, as the report prepares to be issued, embattled Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman is under pressure from his Coalition partners in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to establish who leaked the long-awaited findings.
The premature release of details has sparked f ury across the Government, which faces having to make a politically fraught apology on the issue this week.
Senior sources told the Irish Daily Mail that they expect an investigation and one that will have a result, adding they also expect Mr O’Gorman to live up to his commitments on adoption tracing and apologies. One warned that the embattled minister ‘is running out of lives’.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who with Tánaiste Leo Varadkar will apologise on behalf of the State next Wednesday, has already described the contents of the report as shocking.
It also reveals that some women were ‘taunted’ while giving birth, with disparaging comments and belittling remarks, while women reveal they were forced to live with a sense of ‘overwhelming shame’ and stigma.
Mr O’Gorman has pledged that his department will now be ‘engaging colleagues across Government
‘Dithering created a political minefield’
to ensure that no further information becomes public’. However, senior figures in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael warned: ‘Mr O’Gorman has to take responsibility and stop trying to spread the blame.
‘It is his department and his report. He needs to sort this out himself and stop looking for others to hold his hand.’
One top-level source said: ‘The leaking of this report has been devastating f or the victims. Emotions are high and O’Gorman is not helping.
‘His dithering over publication and where we are now has created a political minefield’, adding that the Taoiseach faces a far more difficult task than previous taoiseach Enda Kenny faced when dealing with this matter.
The minister’s ongoing political difficulties have also led to concern within the Coalition.
He has already had to apologise to survivors last year, after a revolt against his plans to seal documentation from the mother and baby homes for 75 years. After a furious ‘Repeal the Seal’ campaign he expressed deep regret over his f ailure to communicate and engage with the survivors.
In the wake of the latest row, Mr O’Gorman told survivors’ groups he is deeply angered that details of the report were leaked to the media before they were shared with survivors and families.
The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said that he was ‘very sorry’. Survivors said they were hurt and angry, but not surprised.
The 4,000- page report was finished before Christmas, but its publication was delayed because of concerns by Mr O’Gorman about an absence of support services for those affected over Christmas time. One Coalition colleague of Mr O’Gorman noted: ‘Well that is another cunning plan that has been distinguished by its collapse.’ It is still expected that the survivors will hear the conclusions of the commission’s report via a webinar, after tomorrow’s Cabinet Outside meeting. of furious ministers, the debacle was slammed by Opposition TDs, with Richard Boyd Barrett warning on RTÉ’s This Week t hat t he ‘ desperate mishandling’ of the issue risked ‘retraumatising The latest Green the Party victims’. debacle has also led to fears over the sustainability of the Coalition.
One Fianna Fáil minister noted: ‘It is a debacle a week with this lot. In one week O’Gorman has managed to alienate the entire childcare industry and the victims of the mothers and baby homes.’ One Green Party TD said: ‘Failure is endemic across the party. O’Gorman was risible during the mother and baby debate. Regina Doherty ator Victor and Boyhan, Lisa Chambers, Lynn Boylan... Senthey looked as though they knew more than the minister. It was embarrassing. Now he has us back on the front pages for all the wrong reasons again.’ They added: ‘He is another Eamon Ryan appointment that is coming asunder.’ The minister’s Coalition colleagues were already furious over his performance during the original ‘Repeal the Seal’ furore.
One Fine Gael minister said that he ‘constantly looks as though he is being schooled by the civil servants. I’d like to be sympathetic, but he landed us all in a witch’s cauldron of trouble, so I am not.’
They said: ‘He came into that debate with all the bounce of a fellow wearing a $2,000 suit and left looking as though he was in a $20 outfit.’ They added: ‘Roderic has a lot of cleaning up to do and very little time to do it in. He is starting to look like the political version of “Fool me twice, shame on me”.’
Senator Boyhan, who was brought up in State childcare services, has warned Mr Martin that his apology must include a list of practical supports.
He wrote to the Taoiseach ‘requesting that all victims must be fully supported in obtaining practical supports, healthcare and housing, medical cards and a special weekly State payments as appropriate’.
Senator Boyhan also said that the address should include ‘appropriate compensation, restitution and rehabilitative services’.
He warned: ‘ These important issues need to be fully addressed as part of his apology on behalf of the State’, and added: ‘I remain deeply concerned that so many people who had a similar upbringing to myself were terrorised and traumatised because of emotional, physical and sexual abuse, beatings and attempted rape.
‘Any State apology must address these issues and put in place supports for the victims and their families,’ he added.
Sinn Féin l eader Mary Lou McDonald voiced her concerns over the Sunday Independent leak saying: ‘I hope the minister will commit to establishing how this happened. There is concern about a little bit of media handling.’
She said: ‘I think it is not just grossly insensitive, it is in fact unacceptable that any part of this report has been leaked in advance of families and survivors having access to the report.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘The Taoiseach has committed to a State apology, something that has been discussed and called for over many months.
‘The Taoiseach and Minister for Children promised the Government would not be found wanting after this report was published.
‘We understand the Minister for Children’s concerns and we will discuss these further at a government level.
‘It is important, as we have previously stated, that we respond to the needs of survivors with a comprehensive suite of measures upon publication of the report.’
Details of the scandal came to light when local historian Catherine Corless revealed infants were buried in unmarked graves at the Tuam mother and baby home.
‘Insensitive and unacceptable’