Author Archives: mannixflynn

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About mannixflynn

Mannix Flynn has served on Dublin City Council as an Independent Cllr for the past 8 years. (Since 2009) At Dublin City Council, Mannix Flynn has championed accountability, governance and transparency.  He has worked tirelessly within communities on the housing issue and also safety and policing within our city. He has championed many business initiatives within the city area including stronger policing measures within the city resulting in the deployment of extra Gardaí and safety measures. He is keenly aware of the prohibitive burdens on SME's in the city i.e. rates, charges etc.  and is proactive within the city business community for greater reductions in overall charges and better incentives for business community which will ultimately lead to better employment opportunities.  Mannix is an internationally respected advocate for child welfare and protection and has given keynote addresses on the issue at conferences from Berkeley, CA, New York, Poland, London, Taiwan. He is a  keen advocate for greater investment and emphasis on residential rehabilitation for the many who find themselves addicted to drugs and alcohol.   As a professional artist Mannix is a member of Aosdána and his visual art, literature and performance works are internationally recognized.  He has published two novels which have been translated into German, Italian, Polish and is currently being translated into Chinese. He is Artistic Director of Farcry Productions Arts Company. His new documentary film 'Land Without God' is being released in September 2019

32nd Dáil Éireann…so far

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‘Something to Live for’ – Installation at The Ivy/Oak -Parliament Street 2016

Here’s wishing all those elected to represent the people of Ireland the very best. Reconnect the people to the Dáil the Dáil to it’s people.

FIANNA FÁIL

Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny)

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny)

Brendan Smith (Cavan Monaghan)

Niamh Smyth (Cavan Monaghan)

Timmy Dooley (Clare)

Kevin O’Keefe (Cork East)

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central)

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West)

Michael Moynihan (Cork North West)

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central)

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central)

Margaret Murphy O’Mahony (Cork South West)

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal)

Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher (Donegal)

Sean Haughey (Dublin Bay North)

Jim O’Callaghan (Dublin Bay South)

Darragh O’Brien (Dublin Fingal)

John Curran (Dublin Mid West)

John Lahart (Dublin South West)

Jack Chambers (Dublin West)

Anne Rabbitte (Galway East)

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West)

John Brassil (Kerry)

Frank O’Rourke (Kildare North)

James Lawless (Kildare North)

Fiona O’Loughlin (Kildare South)

Seán O’Feargháil (Kildare South)

Sean Fleming (Laois)

Willie O’Dea (Limerick City)

Niall Collins (Limerick County)

Robert Troy (Longford Westmeath)

Declan Breathnach (Louth)

Dara Calleary (Mayo)

Lisa Chambers (Mayo)

Thomas Byrne (Meath East)

Shane Cassells (Meath West)

Barry Cowen (Offaly)

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon Galway)

Marc MacSharry (Sligo Leitrim)

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary)

Mary Butler (Waterford)

James Browne (Wexford)

Pat Casey (Wicklow)

Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim)

FINE GAEL

John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny)

Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny)

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan)

Pat Breen (Clare)

Joe Carey (Clare)

David Stanton (Cork East)

Dara Murphy (Cork North Central)

Michael Creed (Cork North West)

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central)

Jim Daly (Cork South West)

Joe McHugh (Donegal)

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North)

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South)

Kate O’Connell (Dublin Bay South)

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central)

Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal)

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West)

Noel Rock (Dublin North-West)

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown)

Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central)

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West)

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West)

Maria Bailey (Dun Laoghaire)

Sean Barrett (Dun Laoghaire) – automatically re-elected

Mary Mitchell O’Connor (Dun Laoghaire)

Ciaran Cannon (Galway East)

Sean Kyne (Galway West)

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West)

Brendan Griffin (Kerry)

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North)

Martin Heydon (Kildare South)

Charlie Flanagan (Laois)

Michael Noonan (Limerick City)

Patrick O’Donovan (Limerick County)

Tom Neville (Limerick County)

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth)

Fergus O’Dowd (Louth)

Enda Kenny (Mayo)

Michael Ring (Mayo)

Helen McEntee (Meath East)

Regina Doherty (Meath East)

Damien English (Meath West)

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly)

Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim)

John Deasy (Waterford)

Micheal D’Arcy (Wexford)

Paul Kehoe (Wexford)

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow)

Simon Harris (Wicklow)

Eamon Ryan  (Dublin Bay South)

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown)

INDEPENDENT ALLIANCE

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North)

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown)

Sean Canney (Galway East)

Kevin “Boxer ” Moran (Longford Westmeath)

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon Galway)

John Halligan (Waterford)

INDEPENDENTS/OTHERS

Michael Harty (Clare)

Michael Collins (Cork South West)

Thomas Pringle (Donegal)

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North)

Maureen O’Sullivan (Dublin Central)

Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal)

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central)

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West)

Catherine Connolly (Galway West)

Noel Grealish (Galway West)

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry)

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry)

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway)

Michael Lowry (Tipperary)

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary)

Seamus Healy (Tipperary)

Mick Wallace (Wexford)

LABOUR

Sean Sherlock (Cork East)

Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal)

Joan Burton (Dublin West)

Jan O’Sullivan (Limerick City)

Alan Kelly (Tipperary)

Brendan Howlin (Wexford)

PBP/AAA

Mick Barry (Cork North Central)

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West)

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West)

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West)

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dun Laoghaire)

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central)

SINN FÉIN

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow Kilkenny)

Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin (Cavan Monaghan)

Pat Buckley (Cork East)

Jonathan O’Brien (Cork North Central)

Donnchadh O’Laoghaire (Cork South Central)

Pearse Doherty (Donegal)

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central)

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North)

Louise O’Reilly (Dublin Fingal)

Eoin O’Broin (Dublin Mid West)

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West)

Aengus Ó’Snodaigh (Dublin South Central)

Sean Crowe (Dublin South West)

Martin Ferris (Kerry)

Brian Stanley (Laois)

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City)

Gerry Adams (Louth)

Imelda Munster (Louth)

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West)

Carol Nolan (Offaly)

Martin Kenny (Sligo Leitrim)

David Cullinane (Waterford)

John Brady (Wicklow)

SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

Roisín Shortall (Dublin North West)

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North)

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow)

Johnny Murphy Forever

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boots

I am obliged to you. Ah, pardon, it’s I am obliged to you. Its we who are obliged to each other. 

 

Johnny Murphy was an extraordinary talented Dublin artist. He once told me he discovered his talent for performing in the Don Bosco in Crumlin, but I remember seeing Johnny in the many many great productions that the late Deirdre O Connell did at the Focus Theatre. They were the great European classics, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov. Huge talent on a tiny stage, in a tiny place, bursting at the seams. The passion, the commitment, the drive, the humanity that emanated from Johnny Murphy’s performance was something that I carry to this day. Those days, that stage, that place were shared with other greats, Gabriel Byrne, Ena May, Tom Hickey. These people created a whole new energy which was later harnessed into the Project Arts Centre under the baton of the Sheridan brothers, Jim and Peter who assembled a dynamic bunch of individuals that, in my view, changed the course of Irish acting, Irish performance, Irish playwriting, Irish stage writing and dramatic energy.

Johnny Murphy was a vital part, an essential ingredient, a navigator in all of that.

From Yeats’ work to Beckett’s work to Jim and Peter’s own works, the whole collaboration of the Project Arts Centre all boiled down to one ingredient – the performance of the artist and actors. Johnny Murphy was a star attraction. Not just on that stage, but in people’s lives. He was a very generous, no bullshit person who could cut to the chase. I had some fantastic times with Johnny during my time at the Project and in the many plays and tours that we all did as a company.

I deeply respected and appreciated his guidance, his consideration, his understanding and his generous love and what a funny guy. He was blessed with a marvelous wit and a comic genius. He could hold a stage and an audience anywhere. He could mesmerize with a look.

Nobody, that I know of, has ever forgotten a Johnny Murphy performance. Throughout the last number of years of his life he was as active as you possibly could be, particularly after giving what I believe was one of the most definitive performances in the history of Waiting for Godot, when he played the tragic, fabulous Estragon alongside Barry Mc Govern’s Vladimir at the Gate Theatre.  It was way back in the Project Arts Centre’s production of Waiting for Godot that Johnny first unleashed that performance and interpretation of Estragon to packed houses.

Drimnagh and Dublin are proud of Johnny Murphy.  An artist, a father, a brother and a son. Many of us who also loved Johnny, and I mean loved Johnny Murphy, will grieve and miss him. But we will always be reminded of Johnny as we pass his many haunts, his many theatres, and when his many friends gather in different groups, both now and into the future, to talk and remember.   It was Samuel Beckett who coined the phrase ‘we are born astride the grave, the light gleams for an instant, and then it is night once more’.  John Murphy’s light gleamed brightly in our hearts and in the limelight of the stage forever.  We are obliged to you Mr Murphy.

My deep condolences to his daughter, his family, his many friends and his many audiences.

“Johnny, your cue. You’re on.”

 

Busking bylaws. The facts.

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                          Street performance and Dublin City Council bylaws

The Pecker Dunne, traditional busker without amplification

There is a group of individuals who claim they represent all buskers who have been putting out  misinformation, not just about Dublin City Council, but about me in an unjust and inaccurate attempt to demonise and label me as anti-busking and anti-culture. This is not true.

Firstly, nobody, is attempting or has suggested banning busking or street performance.  At present, there is a document in the public domain seeking observations and suggestions with regards how we manage the public domain in relation to street performance. This is part of the democratic process of enshrining the rights of street performers while on the other hand maintaining a balance in the public domain which is also the workplace and home for thousands of people.

Over the years many residents and workers have complained to Dublin City Council and public representatives about the unbearable noise levels at certain locations in the city – mainly Grafton Street, Temple Bar, Henry Street and the GPO.

Having tried a voluntary code of conduct with regards performers’ noise levels, the City Council  decided it was appropriate to create a series of bylaws to help to manage the public domain more effectively.  These bylaws were enacted into law a year ago with a review period that would fix any blaring omissions or further complaints. 

The concerns at present mainly relate to amplification and noise levels and a general wish by many residents and workers to ban amplification which, as well as being a nuisance, drowns out acoustic buskers.  I am not against busking, but, like the residents and workers in the city centre, I  support this ban on amplification. 

This whole process has been democratic, open and transparent where everyone gets heard – unlike on Grafton Street or Temple Bar sometimes when you can only hear the noise that is so loud your head hurts. Anybody interested can read a copy of the new bylaws under consideration before they are voted upon and the voting process itself can be viewed by all when they are discussed at length in Dublin City Council at the Arts Strategic Policy Committee which is webcast live and available online to view after the meeting also.

Rest assured that Street performance and busking will always be a feature on Dublin and Irish streets and Irish culture is the richer for it.

I hope this clarifies some of the issues, even if it doesn’t stop the devious few who want to undermine me and who last year smashed the window of my former studio on Ormond Quay and graffitied disgusting comments all over the building.

Long live busking. Long live street performance. Long live a safe and healthy work place for all.

Devious Poster Theft

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posterpole

 

It appears that there is a group of individuals going around in a white van with high-vis jackets on removing our posters.

We received a call last night to say that someone had seen them in broad daylight taking the posters. We were at the DCC Rathmines depot this morning and they had only one of our posters taken in. We have taken a look around the city and a lot of our posters are missing from the poles they were placed on.
This is anti democratic and completely wrong. We ask whoever is doing this to stop.
I’d also ask the members of the public to be vigilant. The Dublin City Council litter wardens will have DCC ID on them and the DCC logo on the back of their jackets.
To those taking down the posters, be assured, we will be replacing them over the next 24 hours.

 

 

 

 

Poster Removal by DCC

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posterpole

Beware Dublin City Council are removing posters that they deem in breach of protocol. They are failing to inform the candidates or their crews that they are doing this which is leading to great confusion on the ground.

For those who are missing posters check with DCC litter management and retrieve your posters.  The posters for the Dublin Bay South candidates are being stored in Rathmines.

And again we are not being informed about this. The state of the city with the guts ripped out of it from the Luas construction, delapidated buildings and boarded up flats and here are DCC using staff resources to pull down election posters.  The breath taking arrogance of this that they can go around willy nilly.  I’m surprised they haven’t franchised it out to Greyhound.

Its unfair on the major effort that is being made by all the candidates and their crews in atrocious weather conditions to try and create a public platform for themselves in this forthcoming election.  Especially for Independent candidates who are finding it increasingly difficult to compete with  main parties and the financial resources they have not to mention the monopolized media coverage that they get.

I don’t want to see any poster causing a hazard or danger to anybody and if I got the opportunity I’d ban them outright and create a different system.  I did put a motion to ask for the banning of posters after the Giro Italia but it didn’t get passed with fellow councillors so we are left, for now,  with the present situation. And I agree, it is a visual pollutant and its over the top.

But Independents don’t have any other choice in the matter right now as well as that its a very expensive process to print posters, cable ties, ladders, insurance etc.

No candidate goes out there to litter. No candidate goes out there to cause obstruction or hindrance or danger when postering. But if I was to stick a big banner across one of the buildings in Dublin advertising Lucozade there would be nobody for DCC trying to tear it down. There would be the usual hocus pocus letter writing, weeks would go by before the offending massive banner was taken down. Yet, when it comes to us and our posters, they become ultra efficient in taking them down and not even bothering to inform us that we can get them back.

I’m on my way up to Rathmines now to get my posters back.  I do wish the Council would have told me without me having to go through this unnecessary rigmarole.

 

Voting Register Closes Feb 9th 5pm

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Are you registered to vote?

 SUPPLEMENTARY REGISTER CLOSES ON TUESDAY 9TH FEB AT 5PM (Dublin City Council)

Dublin City Council is asking voters to check immediately if they are registered to vote on the Register of Electors, so that they can be sure of having their say and vote in the forthcoming general election.

 The Register of Electors 2016-2017 was published on the 1st February 2016 and is on display at Dublin City Council offices, Garda Stations, Libraries, Post Offices and online at www.checktheregister.ie . If you are aged 18 or over, check that your name, address and details are correct on the Register.

Mr. Vincent Norton, Executive Manager, Dublin City Council says, “I would strongly advise people to make sure they are registered now to avoid disappointment as past experience has shown that many eligible people lost their chance to vote by simply not checking the register. I would encourage all who are eligible to vote to check the website immediately and to register with your local authority, to be included on the

Supplementary Register.  Postal applications must be received by 5pm Friday, 5thFebruary 2016 and the Supplementary Register will close on Tuesday 9th February 2016, 5pm deadline”.

 To be eligible to vote in this election one must be an Irish citizen or a British citizen resident in Ireland.

 Forms are available to download directly from the Dublin City Council website

www.dublincity.ie/YourCouncil/VotingandElections  or you can contact the Franchise Section Tel 222 5010.

Pity the Children

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nora_somebodyAs the Spotlight film opens in Dublin we are now facing into yet another sex abuse scandal in a foster home in the south east of Ireland. Covered up and facilitated by the HSE. You have to ask yourself after all the issues of child abuse in this country – how could this possibly happen? How can the State be so negligent? How can the State be so indifferent? And here we have yet another fine display of mock-shock-and horror from the HSE, the Government and certain TDs. Shame on you. There is not a child safe in the land because of your failure to care for the most vulnerable.
What is the famous catch phrase…oh yes, ‘ we failed to hear your cries’ (Bertie Ahern’s famous remarks)
Enda Kenny’s famous remarks about the Magdalene women with tears in his eyes? Many of the women are still waiting, many  have already died.  And Minister Lynch’s remarks that we’re heading towards a public inquiry beggars belief and goes to show how far removed she is from what is actually taking place here.  Its an act of disassociation. … What is the point in having Ministers for Health, Ministers for Children, Ministers for Justice when the perpetrators and the enablers of these outrages will never be brought to justice? Never face any consequences and no child is protected by the State. 
There is talk now of public inquiry and people being brought before the Public accounts committee. Here again, the State is investigating itself and we all know where that leads. What did our last public enquiries bring us? Massive fees, massive bills and no real truth or consequences.  Robert Fisk’s great title ‘Pity the Nation’ comes to mind here except in this instance its ‘Pity our children’.
The same culture that is evident in Spotlight uncovered by the Boston Globe. The same evidence that is being uncovered in the Ryan Report, the Ferns Report, the Murphy Report, we all know will be found to have been at play here in this foster home child abuse scandal. For the many good people out there who foster children and protect the vulnerable stand up, do you hear me, stand up and show leadership here. Don’t let the good work that I know many of you do be undermined by abusers and a weak State and Civil Service. Your reputations are seriously on the line here because this investigation is going to have to include all fostering and all foster homes and protocols and guidelines around children .
The Nation owes this person and her mother an apology.  It would be a travesty for the Taoiseach or any Minister now to utter such words or even the HSE. This needs to come from the mouth of our very own President, Michael D Higgins who would understand the failing of Government and State here. The President has the confidence of all the people and the credibility internationally to make this statement.
 
Where are all the child agencies? Where was Bernardo’s on this? They seem to come very late with their statements.  Where is Amnesty International on this? This has all the hallmarks of dread with the dark hand of the State and its agents all over it.
We can be very grateful to the whistleblower here who has taken enormous risk cause we all know what happens to people who tell the truth, the honest truth and have to whistle blow in this State.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/sex-abuse-cases-hse-admits-failings-in-foster-abuse-377142.html
 
Spotlight Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg5zSVxx9JM

Unique Dublin Artefact – John ffrench/Mirolo Mosaic

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Mosaic_Mirolo

Mosaic in Boyers Restaurant, Dublin by John ffrench Irish Artist installed by Joe and David Mirolo – (The work is signed 1967)

Boyers of Earl Street is closing its doors for good.  Generations passed through these doors and the place is a wash with memory.  It is important to keep that connection to that memory, to that heritage, to that witness.
In the restaurant of Boyers is a mosaic artwork that many Dubliners over the generations enjoyed.  Too much of this unique work has been previously lost to skips and landfill.  Too many of our unique buildings, streets, have been simply bulldozed and replaced by ugly shopping centres or even uglier office blocks.  A thing of beauty is a joy forever.  This work was installed by Joe and David Mirolo an Italian-Irish family who made a cultural contribution through their trade to this city and indeed to this country.  This is multi-culturalism.  This artwork is the evidence and we must save this artefact, conserve and protect it for the joy and education of future generations. We cannot lose it or let it be taken away.
The Little Museum of Dublin would be an ideal place for this work to be represented and presented back to the Dublin people or any other similar place like it.  Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the North side of Dublin needs its own Little Museum of Dublin. We didn’t save Wood Quay in the past or the Quays.  Much of Dublin has been destroyed despite our cries – surely we can save this fine piece of Italian-Irish heritage? #loveculture
About the Mirolo family:
Guiseppe Mirolo came to Dublin in the 1930s, before the First World War he was studying medicine but that was all to change. He served his apprenticeship with artisans from his home region of Friuli in Northern Italy, he was also a ‘profigi’ or in modern terms a refugee. He worked hard to create a good life for his family and loved Dublin.
Some of his work survives in Dublin and in Christ the King Cathedral and the mosaic’s in Mullingar. The Harp on the steps of Walton’s Music Shop on North Frederick Street is his. The floor of the iconic Waldorf Barbershop is his floor.  The Mirolo family have been involved in Terrazzo & Mosaic for four generations now.
About the artist John ffrench:

John ffrench was born in Dublin to Irish and Italian parents. Travel and foreign inspiration has always been a factor in his work. His early art education was in design, drawing and calligraphy in the National College of Art in Dublin. In 1951, ffrench went to the Institute Statale d´Arte in Florence to study under professor Bruno Pauli. He stayed on in Italy until 1955 to work with like-minded ceramicists on one-off pieces and to soak up the innovations of Italian Modernism. The Mediterranean influence, so apparent in his work from then on, set him apart on his return to Ireland. At this time, Ireland had virtually no craft pottery tradition and mass produced and imported work was standard. Even in the 1950´s, the new craft schools based on the Bernard Leach school favoured the Anglo-Oriental style of dun-coloured pots, the “little brown pots” as they were known.

When ffrench returned to Ireland in 1956 he set up the ‘Ring Studio´ in Kilkenny with Peter Brennan. He began to create pots unlike any seen previously in the country; ffrench preferred to hand build rather than throw his pots and they were very sculptural and experimental in form. The cubist paintings of Picasso and Braque inspired both the ceramics and paintings he made at this time and much of his work was large and irregularly shaped (to the point that his work was described as “too obstinately asymmetrical” by a Dublin newspaper).

In 1962, ffrench returned to Ireland and founded the Arklow Studio Pottery. The Scandinavian Report into the status and quality of craft in Ireland had been scathing, a government initiative to improve standards by involving experts in the various fields was set up. Ffrench was closely involved in this capacity with Kilkenny Studios, which was producing designers for various industries. Influences from his time spent in India were seen in the imagery, colour, form and pattern work of his time. The studio produced tableware, pots, jewellery, wall panels in colourfully glazed, stamped and gilded finishes. In 1969, he moved to America and opened the Dolphin Studio in Massachusetts. With his wife he added batik works and silk-screen prints to his range. He made cheerfully coloured decorative temples and mythical buildings made from individual tiles and arranged like children´s building blocks. In 2007, John ffrench was honoured with a lifetime achievement show from the Arts Council of Ireland.

Suggestions for those engaging in Mother and Baby home inquiry.

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Chrisso Flynn's dress

To all of those who are thinking of engaging in this process.  Keep a record of all phone calls and conversations that you have with the inquiry and its staff.

Keep the original copy of all correspondence or statements that you wish to submit to the inquiry examination. If you are posting, make sure to register and send the copy.

Ensure, if you are going to give witness testimony that you have good counsel and good support mechanisms as this process can be very traumatic and stressful.

It would be also important to inquire now whether there is a fund available for people to avail of counseling etc.

The past is a good learner and the past has show that they never cared for us.  Didn’t nurture us and didn’t love us.  We were ‘surplus to need’ and thrown away.  There is nothing to suggest now that this practice and belief has truly changed.

It is important that people care for themselves and nurture each other and invest in themselves for their own truth rather than this inquiry which will take many years to complete its work.  While it is very welcome – similar public inquiries and examinations into institutions in this country have further alienated many, caused further harm and avoided truth, consequences for perpetrators and has not led to any meaningful recovery, healing or reconciliation.

Try not to give or invest too much in this inquiry process at this particular point.  Easy does it.  It didn’t happen to them it happened to us.  We are the owners of it and they’d be only too delighted if we handed it over willy nilly for them to do what they like with.

So be prudent, be cautious and be aware of false nurture and don’t get  into the world of expectation or transference.

This is just another part of the journey where we will find ourselves challenging the State in an inquiry that they have set up.

It would be far better to email than to phone I think.  It gives you more control and boundary and is easier to manage how one feels and you then also have the paper trail to prove what you have sent.  The freephone is manned from 10am-1pm and 2pm-4.30pm Monday to Friday.   

Children born in the listed institutions are welcome to call and they will be issued with an information leaflet and application form which they can return to the commission should they be interested in telling their story to the Confidential Committee.

We’re not looking for sympathy.  We’re looking for justice and truth and the right to have access to our families and documents etc. When I say we, I include myself, because i’ve been on this journey – similar in every way to the Ryan report for decades. We can hold them accountable but we are ultimately responsible for how we are going to engage with this process.

It would be also wise to set up a good national support group with trusted individuals who people have confidence in as there are many groups out there purporting to represent individuals and groups – perhaps a new steering committee with good independent professionals might be good.

Bear in mind that we were the trafficked, the banished, the forsaken.  For those of us who have had this experience and lived to fight for truth and tell the story there are twice as many who lie in pits for graves from Tuam to Letterfrack, Passage West to Castlepollard.

These are but suggestions – they are not advise and you are the one who has to make the decisions and take the responsibilities.

Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation – Info

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TraffickedA Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby homes and a select few County homes has been established.

If you were in – resident, worked in or had connections with any of the Mother and Baby homes on the list below between 1922 and 1998  the commission would like you to get in contact with them.

You can write to their confidential committee or meet with them in person.  They are looking to hear from former residents, employees and others with relevant information to hear about their experiences.

List of Institutions under Investigation

(1) Mother and Baby Homes as follows:
1) Ard Mhuire, Dunboyne, Co Meath;
2) Belmont (Flatlets), Belmont Ave, Dublin 4;
3) Bessboro House, Blackrock, Cork;
4) Bethany Home, originally Blackhall Place, Dublin 7 and from 1934 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6;
5) Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, Tuam, Co. Galway;
6) Denny House, Eglinton Rd, Dublin 4, originally Magdalen Home, 8 Lower Leeson St, Dublin 2;
7) Kilrush, Cooraclare Rd, Co. Clare;
8) Manor House, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath;
9) Ms. Carr’s (Flatlets), 16 Northbrook Rd, Dublin 6;
10) Regina Coeli Hostel, North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7, and
11) Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co Tipperary;
12) St. Gerard’s, originally 39, Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.
13) St. Patrick’s, Navan Road, Dublin 7, originally known as Pelletstown; and subsequent transfer to Eglinton House, Eglinton Rd, Dublin 4, and
14) The Castle, Newtowncunningham, Co. Donegal.

(2) County Homes
A representative sample of those County Homes selected by the Commission as both fulfilling a function with regard to single women and their children similar to the institutions at (1) above and where the extent of the operation of this function is considered to merit their inclusion for the purposes of the investigations set out at Article 1(I) to (VIII) above having regard to factors such as the number of relevant births, the duration of such operations and the typical length of accommodation period of these mothers and children.
1Historical and official sources may refer to these institutions by various names, and in some cases the Homes may have moved premises during their period of operation.

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CONTACT
FREEPHONE: 1800 806 688
EMAIL:  info@mbhcoi.ie
POST:   Mother and Baby homes
       Commission of Investigation,
        73 Lower Baggot St, Dublin 2
or
P.O. Box 12626, Dublin 2
All identities will be held in confidence.  
For more detailed information please see www.mbhcoi.ie