Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation

Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters
Established February 17, 2015 (2015-02-17)
Legal status Commission of investigation
Purpose To investigate and report on practices in Irish Mother and Baby Homes
Location
  • 73 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2
Chairperson
 Judge Yvonne Murphy
Key people
 Dr William Duncan, Professor Mary E. Daly
Budget
€7 million per annum, approximately
Website mbhcoi.ie

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation (offically the "Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters") is a judicial commission of investigation, established in 2015 by an order of the Irish government. It was set up in the wake of claims that the bodies of up to 800 babies and children may have been interred in an unmarked mass grave in the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, located in Tuam, County Galway, but it's remit covers investigation into records of and practices at an additional 13 Mother and Baby Homes. The Commissioners are Judge Yvonne Murphy (chairperson), Dr William Duncan and Professor Mary E. Daly.

Background

Following widespread news reports in 2014 that 796 babies and children may have been interred in an unrecorded mass grave at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, there were calls both nationally and internationally for an investigation of the site, and for an inquiry into all such Mother and Baby Homes.[1]

Establishment

On 4 June 2014, the Irish government announced it was bringing together representatives from various government departments to investigate the deaths at the Bon Secours home and to propose how to address the issue.[2] The then Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Charlie Flanagan, said any government inquiry would not be confined to the home in Tuam and that officials would advise the Government on the best form of inquiry before the end of June 2014.[3]

On 16 July 2014, the government announced that Judge Yvonne Murphy would chair a Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby homes, including Tuam.[4] In October 2014, the then Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, James Reilly, announced that the draft terms of reference for the inquiry had been circulated to government departments for comment.[5]

On 19 February 2015, Reilly announced that the terms of reference had been agreed at Cabinet for an "independent commission, which has a three-year deadline and which will cost approximately €21 million, following the signing by the Taoiseach of a Government Order at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting".[6][7][8]

The three-person Commission comprises Judge Yvonne Murphy as Chairperson, with international legal expert on child protection and adoption, Doctor William Duncan, and historian Professor Mary E. Daly, appointed as Commissioners.[9]

Terms of Reference

The Terms of Reference specified for the Commission are to investigate and report on:[10]

  1. The circumstances for the entry of single women into Mother and Baby Homes and the exit pathways on leaving, including the extent of their participation in relevant decisions;
  2. The living conditions and care arrangements experienced by residents during their period of accommodation, including by reference to the literature on the living conditions and care experienced by mothers and children generally during the period;
  3. Mortality among mothers and children residing in the institutions (to determine the general causes, circumstances, and rates of mortality), compared to mortality among women and children generally;
  4. Post-mortem practices and procedures in respect of children or mothers who died while resident, including the reporting of deaths, burial arrangements and transfer of remains to educational institutions for the purpose of anatomical examination;
  5. The extent of compliance with relevant regulatory and ethical standards of the time of systemic vaccine trials found by the Commission to have been conducted on children resident in one or more of the institutions (including, inter alia, vaccine trials conducted using vaccines manufactured by Burroughs Welcome in 1960/61, 1970 or 1973);
  6. Arrangements for the entry of children into the institutions in circumstances when their mother was not also resident at the time of their entry;
  7. For children who did not remain in the care of their parents, to examine exit pathways on leaving the institutions so as to establish patterns of referral or relevant relationships with other entities, and in particular to identify:
    1. the extent to which the child's welfare and protection were considered in practices relating to their placement in Ireland or abroad;
    2. the extent of participation of mothers in relevant decisions, including
      1. the procedures that were in place to obtain consent from mothers in respect of adoption, and
      2. whether these procedures were adequate for the purpose of ensuring such consent was full, free and informed; and
    3. the practices and procedures for placement of children where there was cooperation with another person or persons in arranging this placement, including where an intermediary organisation arranged a subsequent placement;
  8. To identify the extent to which any group of residents may have systematically been treated differently on any grounds (religion, race, Traveller identity, or disability).

The investigation covers the period from 1922 to 1998.

Institutions included

The Terms of Reference specified that only 14 specified Mother and Baby Homes were to be included within the scope of the investigation. These were:

In addition, a "representative sample" of state-operated County Homes, selected by the Commission as fulfilling a function similar to the Mother and Baby Homes are included. These are:

Several of the named homes had previously been highlighted as sources for both domestic and foreign illegal adoptions, with many of the children being trafficked to the United States.[11][12][13]

Methodology

In tandem with carrying out the investigations outlined in the Terms of Reference, the Commission was also empowered to establish a "Confidential Committee", with the aim of providing a forum for former residents and staff of the named institutions to provide accounts of their experiences. Such accounts may be used to inform relevant investigations, and the Confidential Committee is to publish a report on the accounts received.[10]

The Commission also includes a literature-based academic social history module, in order to establish an objective and comprehensive historical analysis of significant relevant matters. The Commission is to rely on this analysis as evidence to inform its investigations and to assist it in framing its findings and conclusions within the wider social and historical context of the relevant period under investigation.[10]

Reports

Commission reports

The Commission is due to issue a final report by February 2018. The report may include recommendations, including recommendations relating to "relevant matters that it considers may warrant further investigation in the public interest."[10] It had been due to issue an interim report in 2016, but when published, this report consisted solely of a request for a time extension to 2018 due to the large number of people wanting to make submissions to the Confidential Committee.[14]

A second interim report was issued to the Minister in September 2016 and was published in April 2017. The delay, according to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, was due to the report being referred to the Attorney General for advice on the report's recommendations on the issue of redress.[15]

Departmental reports

In July 2017, Minister Zappone announced that in addition to the Commission progressing its independent investigations, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs would separately report each month on the measures being progressed across Government to respond to the issues which have emerged so far from the work of the Commission.[16]

The first such monthly report was published on 7 July 2017.[17]

The second report was published on 4 August 2017.[18]

Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home

The Commission was brought into being following extensive worldwide media coverage of claims that the remains of up to 800 children had been interred in an unmarked mass grave, believed to be a disused septic tank, on the grounds of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway. In 2014, a local amateur historian, Catherine Corless, had published an article documenting the deaths of 796 babies and toddlers at the Home during its decades of operation. The report noted that the most commonly recorded causes of death among the infants were congenital debilities, infectious diseases and malnutrition.[19] The article claimed that the bodies were buried in a site at the Home and that there was a high death rate of its residents.[20][21] Her research led her to conclude that almost all had been buried in an unmarked and unregistered site at the Home, with Corless believing that the site was also the location of a septic tank when overlaid with maps of the period of use as a workhouse.[22][23][24][25]

The Irish government came under pressure to launch an investigation, which eventually resulted in the establishment of the Commission in February 2015.[26][27][28]

Excavations

As part of its investigations, the Commission ordered excavations of the suspected burial site in Tuam to be carried out. On 3 March 2017, the Commission announced that multiple human remains had been found during excavations carried out between November 2016 and February 2017 at the site. Tests conducted on some of the remains indicated they had been aged between 35 foetal weeks and 2–3 years. The announcement confirmed that the deceased died during the period of time that the property was used by the Mother and Baby Home, not from an earlier period, as most of the bodies dated from the 1920s to the 1950s. The remains were found in an "underground structure divided into 20 chambers." The Commission said "it had not yet determined what the purpose of this structure was but it appeared to be a sewage tank. The commission had also not yet determined if it was ever used for this purpose."[29][30][31]

The Commission stated that it was continuing its investigation into who was responsible for the disposal of human remains in this way, and that it had notified the coroner.

Reactions to excavation find

Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone, said that the coroner's results would determine the direction of the investigation and that the Commission will determine if other sites need to be excavated, including another part of the Tuam site.[32]

The Adoption Rights Alliance and Justice for Magdalenes Research campaign groups demanded that Zappone publish a five-month-old report from the Commission on the issue of broadening the probe's terms of reference beyond the original 18 institutions included, and said the State must ensure that all human remains buried in unmarked graves at institutions in Ireland are identified.[33] (The report was published in April 2017 - the delay, according to the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, was due to the report being referred to the Attorney General for advice on the report's recommendations on the issue of redress.)[15]

The then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, described the find as "truly appalling", saying "the babies of single mothers involved had been treated like some kind of sub-species." He commended the work of Catherine Corless in bringing the issue to light.[34] Speaking on the find in Dáil Éireann, in response to requests to widen the terms of reference of the Commission, he described the Mother and Baby Home as "a chamber of horrors."[35]

No nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children. We gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns’ care. We gave them up maybe to spare them the savagery of gossip, the wink and the elbow language of delight in which the holier than thous were particularly fluent. We gave them up because of our perverse, in fact, morbid relationship with what is called respectability. Indeed, for a while it seemed as if in Ireland our women had the amazing capacity to self-impregnate. For their trouble, we took their babies and gifted them, sold them, trafficked them, starved them, neglected them or denied them to the point of their disappearance from our hearts, our sight, our country and, in the case of Tuam and possibly other places, from life itself.
— Enda Kenny, [36][37][38]

In the same debate, AAA-PBP T.D. Bríd Smith called for the Bon Secours order of nuns to be disbanded. She said "its hospital empire, the biggest private hospital group in the State, was built on the bones of the dead Tuam babies." Smith said "everyone was not responsible for what happened in Tuam. It was paid for by the State, which knew exactly what was going on, and there were 'headage payments' of up to $3,000 for each child sent to the United States."[37]

The Taoiseach's speech was criticised by some. In the Dáil, Catherine Connolly directly addressed the speech, stating:

A shocking discovery, according to everyone, and particularly to yourself Taoiseach. But this is something that Galway has been aware of for a long time, highlighted by Catherine Corless back in 2014, in her painstaking and self-funded research. By the witnesses, the many, many women who went before the commission of inquiry into child abuse which culminated in the Ryan Report, as far back as 2009. They told their stories about their experience in Mother and Baby Homes. It was brought to the attention of Martin McAleese when he concluded his report on the Magdalene laundries. So none of this is shocking to the survivors. What is shocking to the survivors, and to me, is the carefully crafted words that you’ve come into the chamber with. And, in particular, that you say 'no nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children', 'we gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns' care' and so on. I don’t doubt your bona fides, a thaoisigh, but I certainly doubt your judgement in reading that out, a carefully crafted speech with a sentence like that in these circumstances. My question: please answer. Where is the interim report that has sat with the minister since September last year? Please confirm that the site will be sealed off as any crime scene is sealed off.
— Catherine Connolly, [39]

Leader of Fianna Fáil, Micheál Martin T.D., called for a state apology for the infants, a commemoration to be held for them, and for the expansion of the Commission of Inquiry to include other institutions and sites.[38]

The then Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald, stated that "the discovery is an infinitely sad reminder of an Ireland that was a very harsh, harsh place for women and their babies" and that "it shows the tortured relationship the State and church had with pregnant women - it is a tragedy that we are now facing in its entirety."[34]

The Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, said that he is horrified by the confirmation that significant quantities of human remains were buried on the site of a former mother and baby home in the town. Describing the news as "a body blow", he said he had been "greatly shocked to learn of the scale of the practice during the time in which the Bon Secours ran the mother and baby home in Tuam."[40]

The Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference apologised for the hurt caused by its part in the system, which they said also involved adoptions. They also urged parishes to ensure that the burial sites of former residents are appropriately marked, and said that "the appalling story of life, death and adoptions related to the Mother and Baby Homes has shocked everyone in Ireland and beyond."[41][42]

The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, speaking about the find at an International Women's Day reception, said there "are dark shadows that hang over our meeting, shadows that require us all to summon up yet again a light that might dispel the darkness to which so many women and their children were condemned, and the questions left unanswered as we moved on." President Higgins described Catherine Corless' work as "another necessary step in blowing open the locked doors of a hidden Ireland."[41]

Both TV3 and RTÉ broadcast documentaries on the scandal,[43] with the latter's Claire Byrne Live including a segment listing the names of all 796 children who had died at the home.[44]

Catherine Corless appeared on The Late Late Show on 10 March 2017, receiving a standing ovation at the end of the segment. Host Ryan Tubridy said "If that audience represents the people watching tonight, there is a hunger in this country for the truth."[45][46]

Investigation team

In June 2017, Minister Zappone announced the appointment of a team of international experts, comprising an Irish-based forensic archaeologist, a US-based forensic anthropologist and a UK-based forensic scientist, to investigate the burial site. Zappone also said that she was considering broadening the terms of reference for the Commission, in order to "help to answer some of the questions which have been raised again in public debate." The team is led by Dr. Niamh McCullagh, who previously worked with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains in Northern Ireland and the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Command that aimed to locate the bodies of war dead.

Zappone stated that McCullagh will identify options for government, looking at the possibility of exhuming the remains and identifying if there are any further remains on the site that have yet to be discovered.[47] The team is due to complete its final report in September 2017.[16]

In July 2017, the team conducted an extensive geophysical survey on the site. This consisted of data collection through a variety of non-invasive techniques, over the course of 5 days. The team liaised with the Coroner for North Galway, An Garda Síochána, the National Monuments Services and Forensic Science Ireland, and advice was received from the International Committee for the Red Cross.[18]

Criticisms

The scope of the Investigation and in particular its restriction to just a limited number of named homes has been criticised by, among others, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).[48] In a 2017 report, it stated that the Commission of Investigation "is narrow such that it does not cover all homes and analogous institutions [and] therefore may not address the whole spectrum of abuses perpetrated against women and girls."[48]

The committee therefore urges the State party to conduct prompt, independent and thorough investigations, in line with international human rights standards, into all allegations of abuse in Magdalene laundries, children's institutions, Mother and Baby homes, and symphysiotomy in order to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of those involved in violations of women's rights. All victims/survivors of such abuse obtain an effective remedy including appropriate compensation, official apologies, restitution, satisfaction and rehabilitative services.
— UN CEDAW, [48]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Call for inquiry into mother-and-baby home deaths". Irish Examiner. 30 May 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
  2. ↑ "40 years after becoming common knowledge, Irish government to investigate mass graves". Irish Sun.com. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  3. ↑ McGarry, Patsy (5 June 2014). "Mother and baby inquiry to go beyond Tuam – Flanagan". The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 June 2014.
  4. ↑ Kelly, Fiach (16 July 2014). "Judge Yvonne Murphy to head mother-and-baby inquiry". The Irish Times. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Healy, Alison (4 October 2014). "Draft mother and baby homes inquiry terms circulated". The Irish Times. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  6. ↑ "Minister Reilly announces the establishment of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters". Department of Children and Youth Affairs. 19 February 2015. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  7. ↑ Duncan, Pamela (19 February 2015). "Mother and baby homes commission to begin work". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  8. ↑ "Irish mother and baby homes: Terms of three-year inquiry published". BBC. 9 January 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2015.
  9. ↑ "Commission of Investigation – Mother and Baby Homes: Minister Reilly announces the establishment of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters". 19 February 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Terms of Reference". Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. 17 February 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
  11. ↑ Milotte, Mike (2012). Banished Babies. New Island Books.
  12. ↑ Ó Fátharta, Conall (3 June 2015). "SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Fears over ‘trafficking’ of children to the US". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  13. ↑ Ó Fátharta, Conall (3 June 2015). "SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Government already knew of baby deaths". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  14. ↑ Ó Fátharta, Conall (28 July 2016). "Mother and Baby Homes Commission granted externsion". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 2 May 2017.
  15. 1 2 "Commission on Mother and Baby Homes: Second Interim Report published today". Department of Children and Youth Affairs. 11 April 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
  16. 1 2 "Department of Children and Youth Affairs". Department of Children and Youth Affairs. 7 July 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  17. ↑ "Monthly Update on Issues relating to Mother and Baby Homes - July 2017" (PDF). Department of Children and Youth Affairs. 7 July 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  18. 1 2 "Monthly Update on Issues relating to Mother and Baby Homes - August 2017" (PDF). Department of Children and Youth Affairs. 4 August 2017. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
  19. ↑ Duncan, Pamela (17 July 2014). "File contains details of babies born in institutions". The Irish Times. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
  20. ↑ "Explainer: What is happening with the possible mass grave of children found in Tuam?". TheJournal.ie. 7 June 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
  21. ↑ "Baby deaths: now Gardai probe the Tuam 'mass grave'". Sunday Independent. 8 June 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  22. ↑ Bohan, Christine (3 March 2017). "She was right: How Catherine Corless uncovered what happened in Tuam". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  23. ↑ "Mass grave of 796 babies found in septic tank at Catholic orphanage in Tuam, Galway". Belfast Telegraph. 4 June 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  24. ↑ "Almost 800 infants buried in unmarked graves in Tuam, County Galway". BBC. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  25. ↑ Barbash, Fred (13 March 2017). "The 'mother and baby home' at Tuam, Ireland, where friends just 'disappeared, one after the other'". Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  26. ↑ "796 Irish orphans buried in mass grave near Catholic orphanage: historian". CBC News. Associated Press. 3 June 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2014.
  27. ↑ Smith-Spark, Laura (5 June 2014). "Anger grows over reported mass grave of children from Irish unwed mothers home". CNN.
  28. ↑ "Ireland: 'Tuam babies' mass grave allegations must spark urgent investigation". Amnesty International. 5 June 2014.
  29. ↑ "Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation". Mother and Baby Home Commission. 3 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  30. ↑ Edwards, Elaine (3 March 2017). "Tuam babies: 'Significant' quantities of human remains found at former home". Irish Times. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  31. ↑ O’Shea, Sinead (3 March 2017). "Infant and Fetus Remains Are Found at Ex-Home for Unwed Mothers in Ireland". New York Times. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  32. ↑ Barry, Aoife (3 March 2017). "Tuam babies: Next steps in finding the truth behind their deaths". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  33. ↑ "Zappone urged to publish mother and baby homes report". RTÉ. 3 March 2017. Retrieved 15 May 2017.
  34. 1 2 "Kenny says find of human remains at Tuam site 'truly appalling'". RTÉ. 6 March 2017. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  35. ↑ Downing, John (7 March 2017). "Tuam Mother and Baby home was 'chamber of horrors' – Taoiseach tells the Dáil". Irish Independent. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  36. ↑ "Enda Kenny describes Tuam burial site as a 'Chamber of Horrors'". 7 March 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  37. 1 2 O'Halloran, Marie (7 March 2017). "Tuam mother and baby home a ‘chamber of horrors’, says Taoiseach". The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  38. 1 2 McEnroe, Juno (8 March 2017). "'We did not just hide away the dead bodies of tiny human beings, we dug deep and deeper still to bury our compassion, our mercy'". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  39. ↑ "What's In It That’s So Frightening?". broadsheet.ie. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  40. ↑ "Archbishop of Tuam 'horrified' by discovery at mother and baby home". RTÉ. 5 March 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  41. 1 2 "Tuam blows open locked doors of hidden Ireland - President Higgins". RTÉ. 8 March 2017.
  42. ↑ O'Regan, Eilish (9 March 2017). "Mother and Baby homes probe under pressure to test for further remains". Irish Independent. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  43. ↑ Clayton-Lea, Sarah (7 March 2017). "TV3 Is Airing This Shocking Documentary On Ireland's Mother And Baby Homes". lovin.ie. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  44. ↑ "List of 796 children". Claire Byrne/RTÉ. 7 March 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  45. ↑ Quann, Jack (11 March 2017). "Standing ovation for Catherine Corless on Late Late Show". Newstalk. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  46. ↑ "Catherine Corless described as Irish heroine after Late Late Show appearance". Irish Examiner. 11 March 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  47. ↑ Murray, Sean (1 June 2017). "'Today is about Tuam': Catherine Corless commends Zappone for appointing experts to investigate burial site". The Journal.ie. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  48. 1 2 3 Holland, Kitty (6 March 2017). "Mother and baby homes investigation too narrow, says UN". The Irish Times. Retrieved 4 May 2017.

Further reading

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