Bessborough survivor: Identity rights, redress, and criminal investigation needed
Noelle Brown says the report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission was 'not fit for purpose' and should be set aside. Pictures: Moya Nolan
Identity rights, a contribution from religious orders to any redress scheme, and a criminal investigation into the deaths and burial of 9,000 children in mother and baby homes is required on foot of the findings of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.
That’s according to Bessborough survivor and adoption rights activist Noelle Brown, who castigated the Commission for altering the narrative of survivors in what she described as a box-ticking exercise that “misfired”.
The report, published last week, found that 9,000 infants and children died in 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes since 1922 and but found no evidence of abuse or injury to children despite vaccine trials and reported beatings.
The commission, which spent five years on its investigation, has come under fire for apportioning blame across the whole of society and diluting the role of the Church and State in how thousands of women and children were treated.
Branding the Commission findings a “disgrace” and betrayal of survivors and their testimonies, Ms Brown said the report was “not fit for purpose” and should be set aside, echoing the call by Fine Gael Senator Regina Doherty, who also suggested the findings could be independently reviewed.
The level of support from the public for survivors of mother and baby homes, Ms Brown said, was “heartening” but the country was tired of the “lies, evasions, and half-truths”.
Survivors, she said, were left "shocked, hurt and saddened" last week when told at a webinar there was no evidence of injury from vaccine trials, no evidence of incarceration, and no evidence of abuse.
“It should be set aside. It’s not fit for purpose. The fact that this is supposed to be a historical document and is supposed to reflect our voices and personal stories is an absolute disgrace,” Ms Brown told the .
It wasn’t up to survivors to right the wrongs that were made, she added: “I don’t want to have to start a campaign to right a wrong that somebody else did, that this state and government created, this mess.
Ms Brown also took issue with a series of inaccuracies in the testimony she gave to the Commission and said she was not alone in finding that her story was remolded.
“It would have been nice to get an apology or to acknowledge what happened but I haven’t heard a thing,” she said.
“One or two people have been in touch to say that they were not happy, that their narrative had changed or was taken out of context. So it appears there are a lot more of us out there,” she added.
Survivors, she said, faced an uphill battle to access their testimonies and it had since transpired that the Commission had destroyed recordings and transcripts of interviews with 550 survivors.
“It was supposed to be survivor-centred but the testimony of survivors has been completely taken out of context and they have been mistreated when they came forward to share very difficult stories. Trust has been broken,” Ms Brown said.
Born at the Bessborough mother and baby home in 1965, she remained there for eight weeks until she was adopted.
Over 17 years, from 2002 to 2019, she was repeatedly denied information by authorities and only managed to trace her birth family through DNA testing.
By that stage, however, her birth mother and birth father were dead, something that remains raw today.
“I could have met my father. 2016 is not that long ago. It was a deliberate obliterating of information from 2002 onwards,” she said.
The actor and playwright used her own personal battle with authorities to stage a play called ‘Postscript’ about her experience and said that little has changed for survivors since she began campaigning in 2013.
“I can’t believe that in 2021 I am still talking about the same issues that are there,” she said.
The lives of those born in mother and baby home facilities, Ms Brown said, were being ‘obliterated’ by authorities that refused to grant access to basic personal information and records.
“It’s almost as if they are trying to obliterate our births and make us believe that our lives started on the day we were adopted,” she told the
“We are denied even our basic birth certs. There is no country in the world that does that,” she said, adding that only a short-form birth certificate is available to adoptees.
“We are still dealing with this. It is like a deliberate othering of us. It has to stop. It’s appalling and we don’t deserve it. We are being denied choice and are being discriminated against,” she added.
Ms Brown said three things must now happen on foot of the Commission’s findings, which while flawed illustrated the scale of hurt and harm caused to thousands of women and children.
Survivors must have their identity rights upheld by being able to access birth and medical records; the religious orders should make a contribution to any redress scheme put in place; and a criminal investigation must be launched into the death and burial of more than 9,000 babies and children at 18 facilities, she said.
“The report didn’t cover all of the baby homes in Ireland. Can you imagine the scale of what is there when you consider that mass graves were very common,” she said, adding that children who died in the homes were denied “respect, ritual and burial rights”.
There was also a “definite airbrushing” of the role of the church and state in the “horror” of what happened, she said, adding that survivors were not believed and their testimony didn’t count.
“For all of the bad things about this report, it has opened a massive wound in our society and the stories are now haemorrhaging out. The pain is just colossal. And that’s the only good thing about this report,” Ms Brown said.
“The great thing about the truth is that it bursts out the more you try to hide it. It will come out and it has come out,” she added.
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