Hits on survivors’ site triple

THE number of visitors to a website dedicated to helping the survivors of mother and baby homes write witness statements has more than tripled over the past week.

Clannproject.org is part of a voluntary project, Clann: Ireland’s Unmarried Mothers And Their Children, which initially worked to informed the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.

The Clann project gathered testimony given by survivors and relatives of women or children who were in the homes.

Claire McGettrick, who helps lead the project, said: ‘We’d been getting between 1,000 to 2,000 hits per day. There was a huge surge this week – an average of 6,000 hits per day. It has been phenomenal.’

Nine days ago the commission confirmed that ‘significant quantities of human remains’ had been found at the Tuam mother and baby home.

The Clann Project is continuing to collate the reports, and will hand them over to the commission, in those instances where it is the wish of the survivors.

‘It’s a daunting prospect giving your experience to strangers,’ she said, noting that some people simply want a written statement to give to family.