'Force to be reckoned with': Tributes paid to mother and baby home campaigner Mags McKinney, who has died aged 49

Mother and baby home survivor, the late Rosie McKinney, with her daughter Mags in 2024. Mags McKinney died aged 49 this week. Picture: Finbarr O'Rourke

Tributes have poured in for the daughter of one of Ireland's best-known campaigners for survivors of mother and baby homes, who died this week following a short illness.

Margaret "Mags" McKinney died at Dublin's Mater Hospital on Tuesday, surrounded by her family and friends. She was 49.

A native of Cabra in north Dublin, Ms McKinney was a prominent campaigner alongside her mother, Rosie McKinney, who died last year aged 86.

For more than two decades, Mags stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her mother as survivors of Ireland's mother and baby homes found their voices and spoke publicly about the abuse and mistreatment they endured at the hands of the church and state.

Rosie McKinney was one of the most recognisable voices in the campaign for justice. She lost three children, one died and two were adopted by the nuns, and she spent part of her childhood in the Tuam Mother and Baby Home before being sent to a Magdalene Laundry.

She often recounted how, as a teenager, she escaped from the institution and refused to return.

Speaking previously to the Irish Examiner, Rosie recalled threatening to set dogs on the nuns and Gardaí who arrived at her home to bring her back.

"They were not long going," she said.

Throughout the years of campaigning that followed, Mags remained a constant support to her mother and was fiercely protective of her as she shared her experiences publicly.

"My ma never put the bad side out and was never one for seeking attention," Mags said at the time.

"I didn't know half of what she went through, but we just wanted to get everyone recognised for what all the survivors went through."

Mags became a familiar face at demonstrations, protests and events outside Leinster House as survivors and their families sought recognition, accountability and redress.

"It's not about me," she said during one campaign event. "I just want the Government to realise what they did to people like my mother."

She welcomed the state apology delivered to survivors of mother and baby homes in 2021, but maintained that the suffering endured by generations of women and children should never have happened.

"Mam was happy with the apology," she said at the time, "but it never should have happened."

Outside her campaigning work, Mags was a well-known and much-loved figure in her local community. She was regularly seen canvassing in Cabra with her close friend, former Labour TD Joe Costello, whom she affectionately referred to as "boss".

Since news of her death emerged, tributes have poured in from fellow campaigners, survivors and political figures who knew her through years of advocacy work.

Among those paying tribute were survivor campaigners Anna Corrigan and Annette McKay, both of whom worked alongside Mags and Rosie during the long campaign for truth and justice for survivors of mother and baby homes and Magdalene institutions.

Ms Corrigan said she was a “force to be reckoned with” while Ms McKay said the loss was “heartbreaking” as both women thanked her for all the work she did.

Former Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin said: "She was a constant reliable friend of Labour in good times and bad. A personality I always associate with the heart of Dublin, ever present with advice and friendship. May she rest in peace”.