The scandal of the “banished babies” in Ireland
30 April 2021 By Asymmetrical Haircuts, for JusticeInfo.net
Over several decades and into the 1970’s, thousands of unmarried women were forced into mother and baby homes run by the church or the state in Ireland. 50,000 babies were taken away from their mothers. Women from 12-years old and into their forties were “paying for their sins”. For six years, a government commission has investigated the matter. A 3,000-page report came out last January. It was a secret inquiry. It concluded that there was no abuse. Individual victims are still stripped of their identities and still have no access to their birth records. They enjoy no compensation. Our partners from Asymmetrical Haircut, Janet Anderson and Stephanie van den Berg, talked to Mary Harney, a victim and now a tutor at the Human Rights Law clinic at the National University in Galway, and Maeve O’Rourke, a lecturer in Human Rights Law at Galway. “We have a mess on our hands now because nothing was based on human rights,” says Harney about the inquiry. “It’s a whitewash.” Janet concludes from this conversation that it was “a revelation” to her. It will be to anyone who listens.