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Survivors and their families have reacted with shock and dismay at the report into Ireland\u2019s mother and baby homes.<\/p>\nSurvivors and their families have reacted with shock and dismay at the report into Ireland\u2019s mother and baby homes.<\/p>\n
The Commission of Investigation into Ireland\u2019s mother and baby homes, where unmarried mothers and pregnant women were sent from the 1920s right up until the 1990s, was published on Tuesday after years of delays.<\/p>\n
Annette McKay, 66, is a Manchester woman whose mother, Maggie O\u2019Connor from Co Galway, was sent to the mother and baby home in Tuam when she was 17.<\/p>\n
She believes her older sister could be among the 800 babies and infants thought to be at the home, which was run by the Bon Secours, a Roman Catholic religious order.<\/p>\n
For years she has lived with the hope that her sister\u2019s remains could be exhumed and identified \u2013 until now.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI\u2019m very sad. I was never optimistic. I was always full energy, that a fight could be won, and now I don\u2019t feel that. I feel defeated.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIt\u2019s very, very hard today to look at a picture of my mother and think \u2018another year mum, and we\u2019re no further on.\u2019 It\u2019s been a tough day.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the report talks about a process of \u201crespectful reburial\u201d, this will not begin until 2022, and falls far short of what people like Ms McKay were previously promised.<\/p>\n
A survivor of one of the largest mother and baby homes said she has been left \u201cdumbfounded\u201d by the mother and baby home report.<\/p>\n
Campaigner Teresa Collins was born in December 1963 at Sean Ross Abbey in Co Tipperary. She was six-months-old when her grandparents paid money to the religious order so Teresa and her mother could return home.<\/p>\n
The 57-year-old said: \u201cI was very disappointed because they never took blame for what happened \u2013 not the State or religious order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe religious orders said that families did this and we were put in there but if they didn\u2019t want us they should have put us out. They made money out of us.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am dumbfounded by what I have read so far. My grandparents brought me back and I lived with them \u2013 they brought me back home proudly and I put that into the commission report.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she was \u201cshocked\u201d by the mortality rates at Sean Ross mother and baby home.<\/p>\n
Susan Lohan, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance, was critical of the report and said the commission has \u201ctrivialized\u201d human rights issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t used the big ticket headline such as \u201cforced adoption\u201d and \u201cchild trafficking\u201d \u2013 there is nothing deemed to be international human rights language,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s deeply disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also discovered that they have dismissed critical evidence given by survivors, particularly people of mixed race ethnicity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe commission rather boldly stated that there was no evidence that such individuals were discriminated against when it came to adoption.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny person of mixed origin I met have told me they weren\u2019t put forward for adoption and it said on their file they were not suitable for adoption because of their race \u2013 it\u2019s appalling. The commission is telling those people that their evidence is not credible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to have to spend months rebutting the worst conclusions of the commission of investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a disgrace from what I can make out and my worst fears have been realized.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Taoiseach also seems to be determined to go ahead with an apology on Wednesday when survivors won\u2019t even have read the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is deeply disappointing but not surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n