Irish government to apologise over mother-and-baby homes

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Irish government to apologise over mother-and-baby homes

The Irish government is to apologise after an investigation found an "appalling level of infant mortality" in the country's mother-and-baby homes.

Established in the 19th and 20th centuries, the institutions housed women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage.
About 9,000 children died in the 18 institutions under investigation.
The government said the report revealed the country had a "stifling, oppressive and brutally misogynistic culture".
Taoiseach (Irish PM) Mícheál Martin said the report described a "dark, difficult and shameful chapter" of Irish history.
"As a nation we must face up to the full truth of our past," he said.

The commission that investigated the homes found that the number of children who died was about 15% of all those who were born in the institutions.
There were about 56,000 unmarried mothers and 57,000 children in the mother-and-baby homes and county homes investigated by the commission.

The report said "the women and children should not have been in the institutions" and that many women suffered emotional abuse.
The investigators say it appears there was "little kindness" shown to the mothers and "this was particularly the case" during childbirth, which many of the women found "a traumatic experience".


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55622548

This was brought up (all too briefly, in my opinion) in the 2009 Intelligence Squared debate when Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry debated Desmond Tutu and Ann Widdecombe on the claim ‘The Catholic Church Has Been A Force For Good In Our World’. It was sad to see Tutu dodge the issue and infuriating to see Widdecombe defend it.

Then again, Widdecombe has always been a heartless bitch.

Boru