A Mother's Voice: 'I was sent away. I was a pariah'

A music-based project at Triskel in Cork aims to amplify the voices of women affected by Ireland's mother and baby homes 

 Deirdre Wadding had children at Bessborough in Cork, and Dunboyne in Co Meath. Picture: Patrick Browne

Deirdre Wadding, one of the women who features in A Mother’s Voice - a music and arts project at Triskel in Cork that addresses Ireland's mother and baby homes - has experienced incomprehensible trauma. She  had to give up her two sons in two different institutions, and she says  the silence imposed on the women involved that has further added to the pain of the situation.

“I was sent away, I was a pariah," says Wadding. "One of the really damaging things is the impact of the imposed secrecy — that you are living with a secret for so long.”