Mother and baby home group to disband after taking its cause 'as far as it can go'

The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors (CMABS) brought together groups including Castlepollard, St Patrick’s Mother and Baby Home, Beyond Adoption Ireland, Adoption Rights Now and the Magdalene Laundries. File photo: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors (CMABS) is to disband after 13 years of campaigning for survivors of Ireland’s institutions, saying it has taken its work “as far as it can go”.

The CMABS brought together groups including Castlepollard, St Patrick’s Mother and Baby Home, Beyond Adoption Ireland, Adoption Rights Now and the Magdalene Laundries.

For almost a decade, retired solicitor Dudley Potter worked with the organisation, carrying out much of its correspondence and lobbying work with Government departments, ministers, TDs and other organisations.

Mr Potter said the coalition’s purpose was to lobby for a better legislative and redress deal for survivors. He said he received “virtually” no responses to many of his letters and eventually brought some matters to the Ombudsman where he had some successes.

Mr Potter said the coalition also campaigned for survivors to have a greater role in the oversight of the State’s response, including the centre established on Sean MacDermott Street.

He said the group — which was set up by mother and baby home survivors Clodagh Malone and Paul Redmond — had also sought survivor representation on the steering committee, but that their calls were not accepted.

The coalition also brought survivors’ concerns to Europe, petitioning the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions.

Mr Potter said the response was that what had happened did not offend EU law, noting that the European legislation being considered dated from 1956.

“We don’t think we can get any further,” he said. “The decision has been made now to disband."

However, he said there are still court cases pending which could have implications for survivors, including challenges relating to the six-month time limit for bringing certain claims.

The Mother and Baby home redress scheme has excluded people who were boarded or fostered out of homes — despite being in State care at the time, while children in a home under six months have also been excluded.

Mr Potter, who was involved with the coalition for nine years, also criticised the way he believes the Government dealt with survivors and the Commission of Investigation.

He questioned aspects of the report and said “judicial review proceedings resulted in the Government agreeing to quash sections of it”.

He also recalled his involvement in a safeguarding conference organised by the Catholic Church last September, where four survivors spoke about their experiences.

He said the room was silent as they gave their accounts. “But overall the government let survivors down”.