Commission of investigation is an important step in coming to terms with tragic past
21 January 2015
by Cllr Joe Costello
I welcome this opportunity to speak on this Motion regarding the Draft Order for the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. It is not perfect, and it is not final—the terms of reference make that clear. It is another important step in Ireland coming to terms with its tragic past. The Industrial Schools and Reformatories condemned generations of Ireland’s poor and marginalised children to separation from their parents and families and to lives of misery and drudgery in grim isolated institutions. They were condemned in 1970 by Justice Kennedy and gradually closed down, but only gradually.
The apology of the Taoiseach in 1998 and the establishment of the Redress Board in 2002, under the Residential Institutions Redress Act, enabled tens of thousands of the institutionalised youth of Ireland of the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s to receive some acknowledgement of their treatment and the survivors some recompense for their suffering.
The 2009 Ryan Report on Child Abuse produced a devastating examination and analysis of the operation of these institutions and the mistreatment of the children. Subsequently, in 2011, the present Government moved the process further and set up the investigation of the Magdalene Homes, where thousands of young Irish women were incarcerated without trial, largely for the crime of becoming pregnant and bearing children out of wedlock. Senator Martin McAleese produced his report in 2013, and a scheme of redress was put in place.
None of these initiatives were perfect, but they all contributed to addressing, however inadequately, the wrongs that were perpetrated on the children and mothers of Ireland under an uncaring, unchristian society in much of the 20th century.
Today, the latest phase of the Government’s attempts to undo the wrongs of previous generations is initiated. It, too, is far from perfect and will not address all the concerns of those survivors who were placed in Mother and Baby Homes. Most serious of all is that so many are no longer with us and have never seen any State acknowledgement of their suffering as young citizens of this country.
Because many of the survivors, some of whom are in the Gallery today, are now in their twilight years, it is important that we get it as right as possible on this occasion.
I want to congratulate the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors, both in Ireland and abroad, for the campaigning work they have done to date. I am pleased that Bethany Home, a protestant Mother and Baby institution, has at last been included in this enquiry. I met the intrepid Derek Linster in 2002 when the Residential Institutions Redress Bill was being debated and extracted a commitment from the then Minister for Education, Michael Woods, that Bethany Home would be included in an additional schedule of institutions under the legislation. It never happened and successive Ministers all refused despite the protestations of Derek and his colleagues. Now at last, after 12 years of constant campaigning, they have got a commission of enquiry.
They should be facilitated in telling their stories, both as a testament to their experience and as a record of that unsavoury past, lest we ever forget. I believe that there is ample provision within the terms of reference to facilitate full personal testimony.
The second Mother and Baby case that I have been engaged with over very many years is the case of baby Marion Howe, who died in 1955 in controversial circumstances, having been transferred from Goldenbridge Orphanage in Inchicore, which was run by the Sisters of Mercy.
Marion was aged 11 months when she was admitted into Goldenbridge. Marion’s mother was ill at the time and her father was working in England. She was to be in Goldenbridge for only two weeks while her mother recovered. On the 21st May 1955, just four days after her admittance, Marion died.
When her father, having been told by the Sisters of Mercy not come home, went to see Marion at the mortuary in St. Ultan’s Hospital, he saw that her head and two legs were bandaged. When unwrapping the bandages, he saw two identical holes on the inside of her knees.
However, the cause of death on the death certificate was given as acute dysentery infection. Marion’s parents went to the Gardai at the time, but were told to let it go. The family went to the Gardai again in 1996, forty years later. At first the Sisters of Mercy denied that Marion was ever in Goldenbridge; however, the Gardai eventually uncovered a sick book that named Marion and read “one leg burned and a history of vomiting”.
The accusations in the 1996 RTE documentary “Dear Daughter” and in “States of Fear”, which focussed on mismanagement and mistreatment in Goldenbridge have never been followed up or fully explained.
The findings of the Ryan Commission of Enquiry into child abuse in 2009 were scathing of Goldenbridge as a place where children were humiliated, assaulted and neglected.
Goldenbridge should be included in the schedule of Mother and Baby Homes, and the remains of Marion Howe should be exhumed as part of that investigation. This will be the last opportunity for some considerable time to address the issues involved and this particular Commission is the ideal forum for doing so.
I want to thank the Minister for setting up this enquiry within six months of coming to office. I wish to thank the Minister for Justice and Equality for now agreeing to request the Dublin City Coroner to review the case for exhumation of the remains of Baby Marion. It is the dearest wish of the family members—some of whom are here today—that the exhumation should take place so that, at last, the cause of death can be determined after 60 years without answers. Their mother and father, who fought for many years so that the circumstances of baby Marion’s death be examined, are sadly deceased.
Therefore, I welcome the provisions in the terms of reference that provide flexibility for the Commission to decide how it proceeds with its investigation. I further welcome your invitation to the family in a PQ reply dated the 14th of January 2015, where you stated that “the family may wish to consider providing the Commission with any information in their possession which they consider may be relevant to its terms of reference”.
As the terms of reference state that “The Commission may include in its reports any recommendation that it considers appropriate, including recommendations in relation to relevant matters identified in the course of its investigation which it considers may warrant further investigation in the public interest”, I believe that this case falls within the Commission’s remit and Goldenbridge should be included in the Schedule of Homes to be enquired into.