Ireland Has Sealed The Mother & Baby Homes Archive For 30 Years - What Does This Mean For Survivors?
In October, controversial legislation was passed in Ireland sealing the archives of Mother and Baby Homes for 30 years, denying survivors access to their own information. As the five-year commission into mother and baby homes came to an end, the bill to seal the archives was signed by President Michael D Higgins on 25th October which outlines that any records not passed on to the child and family agency, Tusla, for use in its database will be sealed for the next 30 years.
The bill has been defended by Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman who argued that the Attorney General advised him that access to the records was explicitly restricted by the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004.
However, there has been significant backlash from survivors and campaigners who argue that they have the right to access this information. The adoptees’ rights group Aitheantas created a petition to ‘Repeal the Seal’ to allow adoptees and survivors to open the archives, it has gained over 160,000 signatures so far.
They state their reason for doing so as:
“For the first time the Irish people can see for themselves the callousness with which the Irish State has treated Women and Children & survivors who came through Mother and Baby Homes, Baby Homes, industrial schools who are denied access to their own testimony, files and records - this needs to stop.”
Mother and baby homes were church-run homes where unmarried pregnant women could go to deliver babies in secret that would be given up for adoption. These institutions operated for eight decades and the last mother and baby home only shut in 1996.
More than 190,000 women and children are estimated to have been placed in mother and baby homes and the survivors that were born in them have struggled to access information about what really happened.
Access to this information would reveal to survivors the truth of allegations made about the neglect that took place in these homes, including arbitrary detention, forced adoption, and vaccine trials. As well as hold those responsible to account, this information would give many survivors a missing piece of their history that has been denied to them.
Many also wish for access to personal records that would help trace missing family members and provide information about the babies who were buried in unmarked graves. An investigation into the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in County Galway revealed that almost all babies who died at the home had been buried in an unmarked and registered site at the home. It is estimated that nearly 800 children died at Bon Secours, the most commonly recorded causes of death uncovered in inspection reports were congenital disabilities, infectious diseases, and malnutrition. Excavations carried out at the home revealed a significant quantity of human remains from the ages of 35 fetal weeks to two to three-year-old infants.
The denied access to the archives is a pain that has been keenly felt as it denies the accountability for a brutal part of recent Irish history where vulnerable women were the victims and helpless children, now adults, have had their only way of finding the truth stripped away.
After much repeal, ministers have now said access to records for 30 years will not be denied. An Irish Government statement on 28th October said the cabinet had a "detailed reflection" on issues raised in recent days and said it "acknowledges and regrets the genuine hurt felt by many people."
However, O’Gorman has said that he has consulted with the office of the attorney general and confirms that GDPR (data protection) does apply to the archive from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. This will mean that anyone seeking to get information from the archive through GDPR will have to prove that their application does not infringe on the rights of others.
Written by Lucy Palin
I’m 21 and an English literature student at Cardiff University so I am understandably obsessed with books and reading