Elaine Loughlin: How many times will baby home survivors be failed by State?
Candles, Childhood mementos, tokens of lost children placed at a sculpture and rembrance plaque and inscription near the former mother and baby home at Bessborough, Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins
When the survivors of mother and baby homes came forward to tell their story, some speaking for the first time, they expected that they would be listened to.
Instead, the often painful and highly emotive lived experiences of 500 people who spoke to the Confidential Committee were almost considered idle chat, not to be treated with the same weight as other information that was provided directly to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation.
In the wake of the publication of the final mother and baby home report in 2021, many who had given birth or who had spent their formative years in these institutions felt the official document did not reflect their experiences.
It later emerged that the commission had wiped the 500 personal testimonies provided to the Confidential Committee, and the recordings were only retrieved after intense lobbying from campaigners and politicians.
Survivors were further outraged when commission member Professor Mary Daly claimed that the information they provided did not meet the "robust legal standards of evidence" needed to be included in the main report and it would have taken "a lot of additional time" to cross-reference and integrate it into their work.
She added that interviewers only managed to get "odd snippets" from survivors, claiming that "nobody described really heavy work to us". The commission separately heard from a smaller number of people under oath, which was considered fully by the commission.
Prof Daly's comments sparked fury. A group of more than 30 historians claimed that "best professional and ethical practice were not followed".
In an open letter, they said Prof Daly's remarks revealed "what we had suspected"; that the commission "made no attempt to adopt a survivor-centred approach to historical research and that the history was written without consulting survivors' testimony".
An announcement by Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman in June 2021 that an international human rights expert would be appointed to listen back to and re-examine the detailed accounts provided to the Confidential Committee was warmly welcomed by former residents of mother and baby homes as well as campaigners.
Mr O'Gorman, it now appears, made efforts to bring a memo to Cabinet to kickstart the recruitment of the expert. However, the trail then went cold.
Last December, when the minister was queried on the review process's progress — six months after it had been announced — he appeared to be readying survivors for yet another disappointment.
“In terms of the treatment of the commission's report itself, as I said we are looking to advance a piece of work in terms of the testimony that was given by survivors before the Confidential Committee and the ability for that to form part of the record and the historical record of what happened in these institutions," said Mr O'Gorman. "And that's our focus at the moment in terms of advancing that particular piece of work."
Now, 14 months after the minister's announcement, it has been confirmed that the review has been scrapped.
What happened to change the mind of Mr O'Gorman and his officials who had been drawing up a memo to go to Cabinet? Why was this pulled and then not progressed?
The Department of Children now feels that instead of diving back into the evidence provided by survivors, a different approach should be taken.
"Having considered the matter, the minister believes that a new initiative to support survivors to tell their personal story, so that it can be formally recorded and accepted as part of the official record, provides the best opportunity for responding to the concerns of survivors in a meaningful way," said a spokesperson.
The department is now working on proposals for a new process to allow survivors of these institutions to come forward and tell their personal story again and/or to use their testimony to the Confidential Committee, so that it can be formally recorded and accepted as part of the official record.
"These personal accounts or lived experiences will be housed in the National Centre for Research and Remembrance, which received Government approval on March 29 this year," said the spokesperson.
But having their stories re-recorded and held in a museum will not solve the issues raised by many about the final report of the Mother and Baby Home Commission.
What was criticised as a deeply flawed final report, a document that did not fully reflect the views of survivors, will remain the official State account.
Another chapter to add to the story of a group of people who have already been failed, and failed again.
