Published 10 days ago • loading... • Updated 10 days ago
Thousands more women admitted to mother and baby institutions than estimated, report finds
The report includes 70 recommendations and says many women faced rape, degrading treatment and forced separation of families.
On Tuesday, the Truth Recovery Independent Panel published its final report, finding more than 15,000 women and girls were sent to Mother and Baby Institutions and Magdalene Laundries in Northern Ireland between 1920 and the 1990s.
Testimony from almost 300 affected individuals reveals many faced "degrading treatment," with numerous women subjected to rape or other abuse before entering the institutions, which operated with systemic gender-based discrimination.
Issuing 70 recommendations, the report documents how babies were moved into the outside world, though the Panel noted difficulties obtaining records from Barnardo and the Sisters of Mercy regarding facilities operated between 1950 and 1970.
The Panel urges immediate appointment of a public inquiry chair while demanding survivors receive "core participant status," which one survivor said will provide a platform for an "honest account" of these events.
Legislation passed by the Assembly last week, nearly five years after initial recommendations, with the Panel expressing regret that "synergies that should have been created between the panel and the inquiry have been lost due to delay.