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At least 9,000 children died in homes for single mothers in Ireland, report says

2021-01-13T01:04:41.817Z


The 3,000-page report also describes the emotional and even physical abuse some women were subjected to in so-called homes for mothers and babies.


By Yuliya Talmazan and Adela Suliman - NBC News

Some 9,000 children died in homes for single mothers in Ireland run mostly by the Catholic Church, according to a government report released Tuesday.

This equates to

15% of all children who were born or lived within almost 80 years

in the 18 institutions that were investigated.

The nearly 3,000-page report describes the emotional and even physical abuse that some of the

56,000 single mothers

who stayed at the facilities

were subjected to

.

In the so-called homes for mothers and babies, there were from women farm workers to domestic servants.

"It seems that the treatment that was seen was unkind, in particular when they were giving birth," says the report.

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The homes, many of them

run by nuns and members of the Roman Catholic Church

, operated in Ireland for most of the 20th century.

The last functioning establishment was closed in 1998. The houses received state funds and also acted as adoption agencies.

Many of the children were adopted by families from the United States.

The report indicates that the harsh treatment received by women who gave birth to children without being married was mainly responsible for the children's parents and their own immediate families.

However, he adds that

state institutions and churches supported

, tolerated and contributed to this deal. 

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According to anonymous accounts that are included in the report, women who gave birth were sometimes "verbally insulted, degraded and even slapped."

"We did this to ourselves, we treated women exceptionally poorly

," the Taoiseach, or Irish Prime Minister, Micheál Martin, told reporters on Tuesday after the report was released.

"A harsh truth in all this is that all of society was complicit," he added.

The report also notes the extremely high infant mortality rate in households, calling it "probably the most disturbing characteristic of these institutions."

In the years before 1960, she says,

homes for mothers and babies did not save the lives of "illegitimate" children

, but instead significantly reduced their chances of survival.

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The report did not include an explanation for the reasons behind the

high death rates

.

Martin said the report revealed "significant failures of the state and society" and that he hoped its publication would promote social change. 

The Maternal and Child Homes Investigation Commission, which carried out the investigation for five years, also examined allegations that some

children in the homes were used for vaccine trials

without parental consent for their participation.

The report identifies seven trials of such vaccines, involving "multiple children," that took place between 1934 and 1973 in homes.

[

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]

A former resident of one of the homes in Cork City spoke to NBC News and said she was used as a

"guinea pig"

for vaccinations, before being adopted by a family in Philadelphia in 1961.

The report says that consent was not obtained from the children's mothers or their guardians and that the necessary authorizations were not presented during the trials.

Homes for mothers and babies took in women, some as young as 12, who had become pregnant out of wedlock, a taboo in a conservative country.

This was seen as

an attempt to preserve Ireland's image as a devout Catholic country

.

Now, the houses are synonymous with a dark chapter in the nation's history, say Irish politicians and survivors.

A local hobbyist historian, Catherine Corless, was the one who first brought up the issue of abuse in the home.

She discovered

a large, unmarked cemetery in Tuam

in western Galway County, prompting an investigation that found the remains of at least 700 children buried between 1925 and 1961, according to a 2017 report.

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Before publication, details of the report were leaked to the media, sparking outrage from victims, including survivor Philomena Lee, whose story was portrayed in a film in 2013 starring Dame Judi Dench.

Ireland has traditionally been a Catholic stronghold, but

decades of abuse scandals have damaged the Church's reputation

and weakened its influence.

Pope Francis apologized for the mother-and-baby house scandal when he was in the country in 2018, in what was the first papal visit to Ireland in nearly four decades. 

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NBC News has not yet received a response to a request for comment from the Vatican.

Although the financial compensation given to survivors was not explicitly mentioned in the report,

the Irish government said it would create a fund for children

still disadvantaged by being in institutions.

He also said he would work with survivors and groups representing them to oversee the completion of a memorial, to make changes to Ireland's curriculum and to provide support and advice.

Prime Minister Martin is scheduled to issue a formal apology to the victims on behalf of the state on Wednesday.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2021-01-13

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