Mother-and-baby-homes: " It was run like a prison"
Last updated 27th Jan 2021
A Northern Ireland woman has called for a full public inquiry into the mother-and-baby home scandal.
It’s after a report was published yesterday (Tuesday) which revealed victims of rape and incest were put in homes for unmarried mothers.
The report into operations of the institutions examined eight mother and baby homes, several former workhouses and four Magdalene laundries.
Women claimed they were subjected to labour like scrubbing floors during the final stages of pregnancy and were described as “fallen'' and stigmatised.
The research was undertaken by a team of academics from Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University.
More than 10,500 women and girls entered mother and baby homes over a 68-year period from 1922.
Colette, who is now in her 60s, was put into Marianville on the Ormeau Road when she was 16 years old.
She said she was never physically abused but the mental abuse she suffered was traumatic.
She said: “You couldn’t talk to the other girls or get to know them or ask their names and one time I went to escape, and I was caught.
“Then my letters were read and any letters I wrote had to be read going out and I wasn’t allowed phone calls I wasn’t allowed outside, and this was my punishment.
“It had a big impact on my life.
“I was traumatised giving birth on my own.
“We felt like outcasts, even the nurses in Templemore didn’t talk to you.”
Colette said on Sunday evenings the babies in the home would be dressed to be vied by the adoptive parents.
She added: “It was just a scary and lonely time and my spirt was broke and no one to help me.
“It was just so hard to keep your child as well and they made it impossible to get to the child.
“It was an awful time in my life and I’m on anti-depressants since.
“It had a big impact, when you’re on depression tablets at the age of 20 and you’re made like an outcast.”
Around 4% of babies were either stillborn or died shortly after birth across the entire period, the independent report ordered by Stormont ministers said.
An estimated 32% of infants were sent to baby homes following separation from their birth mother.
Other babies were boarded out, fostered in today's terms.
Others (around a quarter of babies) were placed for adoption.
Colette said that because of supressed anger and trying to “block things out” she had a break down when she was 38 years old.
She said: “It was run like, well probably like a prison.
“Everything was laid out for you, you hadn’t a choice what to do and the things that you see in there as well.
“There were young girls, 14 might have been the youngest,
“When I think back on it, it was horrific to be 16 and on your own.
“It’s just an overwhelming feeling and it’s terrible to look back and see what happened.
“All the girls and their babies and adoption babies being taken away from their mothers and them crying.”
“It’s just horrific, and the Government didn’t even check what was happening in the homes.
“I was very strong willed, and I made up my mind that they weren’t going to get my baby.
“They put her in a home in Portadown which was impossible for me to get to because of buses and that.
“We’ll I’d like a full inquiry into what happened.”
“An apology is too late now we have been hurt, but maybe an apology and help for the mothers and the children as well who went through all this.”
First Minister, Arlene Foster, pledged the voices of survivors would be heard “loudly and clearly''.
She said: “It was not their fault that they were raped or the victims of incest, yet they were the ones who suffered, and it appears to me that those who perpetrated the crime went scot-free.''
Deputy First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, said the report gave a “sad and troubling'' insight into the lived experiences of the thousands of women and girls, and their now adult children, who suffered in these institutions.
“The harsh treatment of these women was cruel, unjust and inhumane.
“As a mummy, my heart breaks for the women and girls who did no wrong, whose rights were ignored and whose children were so cruelly taken from their arms.
“For those children who never knew their mothers, who for too long have been kept in the dark.
“They were failed on every level and we cannot allow them to be failed any longer.''
A “victim-centred'' independent investigation was ordered by Stormont ministers and should be completed within six months.