Commission’s actions ‘baff ling and muddled’ say survivors of homes
As investigation is dissolved, many former residents have yet to see report
A SURVIVOR of the mother and baby homes says she finds it ‘baffling’ that she still has not received a copy of the official report into the institutions, almost seven weeks after it was published.
Many of the survivors had understood they would see their testimonies in a draft document before the official report was published.
But now, with the commission due to wind up today and nearly two months after the report was leaked to the media, they are still awaiting their first glimpse of how their stories were portrayed.
Teresa O’Sullivan told the Irish Mail On Sunday: ‘I’m not the only one. There are lots of other survivors I’ve been in touch with, waiting for their copies too.’
Ms O’Sullivan was born in the Tuam mother and baby home. At 63, she is one of the youngest of the 549 people who gave evidence to the commission and she has some access to the internet.
‘I was able to read some of it but I’m not great with the internet and I know many, many of the people who told their stories would have no internet at all, just because of their age. How did they [the commission] not think of that?’
Ms O’Sullivan’s mother gave birth to her in the Tuam home at the age of 16 and the following year, while Teresa was still an infant, she was sent to St Patrick’s orphanage in Cork.
She was adopted by a ‘wonderful family’ in west Cork and she found her mother in later life whom she describes as ‘a lovely gentle woman’.
But the ‘sadness and what ifs’ have followed her all her life and what she doesn’t remember of the home in her conscious mind, she carries in her body, she says.
Despite her giving evidence to the commission for ‘one and a half to two hours’ in a hotel in Limerick, where she now lives, she was disappointed not to see any of her story in the report.
‘I saw elements of it, mixed up with others but it wasn’t my words and really it wasn’t my story.’
Like many survivors, Ms O’Sullivan gave no permission for the recording of her testimony to be destroyed.
‘They asked me if they could record me but I have no memory of them telling me they would get rid of the testimony. I would have remembered that.’
An opposition motion to extend the life of the commission to address survivors’ concerns was passed in the Dáil this week.
However the Government is not obliged to act on the motion, so the commission will wind up today.
Having previously said that all audio recordings from survivors had been deleted, Children’s Minister
Roderic O’Gorman aboutturned this week and said ‘a back-up disc’ had been found.
Responding to an outcry, he said
he would ensure that all 549 audio recordings are secured and that a facility within his department would be established to provide personal data to those survivors who request it under GDPR.
Like many other people, Ms O’Sullivan is confused.
‘Everything has become so muddled in recent weeks it’s hard to follow what’s happening with our stories, our testimonies.
‘I follow the news. I follow current affairs. I don’t usually have trouble understanding things. But I’m having trouble keeping up with this.
‘Anything they can do to make the lives of survivors a bit better, to ease the pain of people who may be in their 60s, 70s, 80s or older. Anything to help them, that should be the focus.
‘Preserving our story for history is part of that. They should never have deleted it. So when people come along in 20 or 100 years, they’ll know that’s what happened, not in the language of the report but our stories.
‘There’s a sadness and a retraumatisation happening because of all that’s gone on in the last few weeks.
‘They’re up there debating about us and what will be done with our information and we have to depend on them to do the right thing.’
Ms O’Sullivan is one of many survivors who have given evidence to the Tuam Oral History Project.
The scheme is run by the history department at the National University of Ireland at Galway to record stories of survivors of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home at Tuam. The experience, she says, was infinitely better than telling her story to the commission.
‘We were allowed to look back on our testimonies, to hear back and change anything we wanted. It is much more accurate than the Government report,’ she said.
‘It brought a tear to my eye during the week listening to the Dáil debates and how people were fighting our corner.
‘Because in the end, there must be accountability,’ she said.
‘It wasn’t my words and really wasn’t my story’
‘We depend on them to do the right thing’