We want action .. not apologies
Victims living with legacy of abuse won’t be fobbed off
AMOTHER and baby home survivor who was used for vaccine trials as a toddler said apologies are empty unless action is taken.
Francis Timmons was speaking ahead of tomorrow’s publication of a report into the abuse carried out at the Church- run institutions.
He was an infant when he was part of two drug tests in Dublin’s Madonna House in the 1970s.
As an older child he and his brother were fostered and Francis suffered abuse at the hands of his carers.
He told the Irish Mirror : “We’re led to believe here’s 57,000 survivors alive in Ireland, I reckon there’s more.
“I was born in 1971 and was taken of f my mother because she was unmarried.
“She actually had two other children, which was the crime of the century at the time.
“They used children as human guinea pigs in some of the institutions.”
Francis, f rom Clondalkin , West Dublin, spent his formative years at Madonna House in Blackrock, which was run by the Sisters of Charity.
Pharma gi ant Glaxosmithkline confirmed to him as an adult he had been involved in two trials between 1972 and 1973.
Francis and other survivors of State institutions will h e a r a l o n g overdue report f r o m t h e C o m m i s s i o n I n t o Mo t h e r A n d B a b y Homes.
It was set up in 2015 to look a t t h e t r e a t - ment of women and children in 14 mother and baby b b homes h and d four f county homes between 1922 and 1998.
It was set up after 800 babies’ bodies were found in an unmarked mass grave at a former Bon Secours home in Tuam, Co Galway, after research by historian Catherine Corless.
Survivors will hear details of the report and the Government’s response from Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Mi n i s t e r f o r Ch i l d r e n R o d e r i c O’gorman in a webinar before it is made public.
The Department of Children called publication of the report a “landmark moment” for survivors who contributed to the commission’s work by sharing their deeply personal stories.
The commission looked at issues including how women and children entered and l eft the homes, their t r e a t me n t w h i l e t h e r e , l i v i n g conditions, burial practices, abuse, forced labour, forced adoptions, forced participation in vaccine trials and providing bodies of residents who died for medical research.
Francis, now a councillor in West Dublin , re veal ed hi s three- year- old elder sister died of malnutrition in the institution, St Patrick’s on the Navan Road, before he was born.
He said: “We don’t know where she was buried. I asked the minister, ‘ Is there a picture of my sister some
I was taken off my mum as she was unmarried FRANCIS TIMMONS DUBLIN
where in this world?’ That would mean more to me than anything.” Francis managed to reconnect with his mother and was with her when she died in January 2014.
H e a d d e d t h e t ra uma of hav i ng losing her kids had a life- long impact on her mental health and she had probl ems with addiction. Francis said: “I c o n s i d e r my s e l f lucky I know my two brothers, I have a relationship with them now.
“I wouldn’t say we came through it unscarred because we didn’t, I drank an awful lot and did lots of things that I probably wouldn’t have done.”
He added he finds the term county “homes” offensive.
Francis said: “A home has connotations of somewhere where you feel secure, safe, l oved , proper meals, proper play time.”
Some State, church and privatelyrun institutions became notorious for illegal adoptions in Ireland in the mid20th centur y, with some claiming babies were sold to American or other foreign families.
The child and family agency Tusla has said 126 people were incorrectly registered at birth between 1946 and 1969 by the former adoption society St Patrick’s Guild. ubliner Theresa Hiney Tinggal discovered she was adopted when she was 48.
Th e r e s a , w h o l i v e s i n Bournemouth, said: “It was quite a shock. Over the years I’ve had several meetings with ministers for children
Dand they always said they’d look into it and investigate it and I ’d return to England and nothing.
“So basically I was stonewalled. That’s what was happening in the 50s.”
Theresa’s biological mother was 30 when she got pregnant and came up to Dublin, where she made a contact at the Coombe Maternity Hospital. She added: “It was all taken out of her hands. I believe I was probably born in a home on the Howth Road [ North Dublin].
“The nurse who arranged it all, she had a contact there. I was born on the
What really hurt me was the conspiracy of lies. You discover you’re not that person THERESA HINEY TINGGAL BOURNEMOUTH
ninth and a nurse went with my mother to the church on the 11th and they baptised me as Theresa Hiney.
“My mother went i n and j ust registered me as their child. My adoptive parents were put down as my parents.”
Theresa, 66, had a fraught relationship with her mother and her uncle revealed she was adopted.
She said: “My parents were probably scared stiff if I did find out.
“The s** t would have hit the fan and they would have been i n BRIEFING trouble. They did it with the best of intentions as far as I ’m concerned.” Using DNA websites Theresa managed after two years to find her biological family in Tipperary.
Un f o r t u n a t e l y h e r mot h e r h a d p a s s e d away eight or nine years before that.
Th e r e s a i s wr i t i n g about her experience of t r a c i ng h e r r o o t s i n Agai nst Al l Odd s .
She said: “What really hurt me over the years was conspiracy, lies. You’re 48 and you discover you’re not that person at all.”
Theresa, who has two children, was inter viewed for the commission of investigation and was told there is no guarantee adoptees will be included.
Francis and fellow survivor Terri Harri s on have set up Society of Sur viv ors a l i st ening ser vice and helpline. It opens Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 6.30pm to 8.30pm on 0858069925 and 0858069926.