Ireland: Mother and Baby Homes Commission finds roughly 9,000 child deaths and a coercive, misogynistic institutional culture

Proceedings

1. 2021-01-12 · official inquiry final report

   Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters, Ireland — statutory inquiry. The Commission, established in 2015, found that around 9,000 children — about one in seven of those born in the 18 institutions within its terms of reference — died in them between 1922 and 1998, roughly double the general infant-mortality rate. It described a 'stifling, oppressive and deeply misogynistic culture' reinforced by Church and State attitudes that directly and repeatedly deprived women of choice and agency through coercion, shame and family obligation. It named the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary's Bessborough home as having a particularly high infant-mortality rate; the order apologised. The report was criticised by many survivors for concluding there was insufficient evidence of systemic forced adoption or abuse, despite contrary survivor testimony. No individual nun was criminally convicted as a result of this Commission's findings.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• coercion, shame and family obligation used to deprive women of choice and agency, per the Commission's own finding
• religious framing of unmarried motherhood as sin requiring institutional confinement and penance
• denial of information about and access to children, later the basis of separate forced-adoption allegations the Commission found insufficient evidence to substantiate