Tag Archives: accountability

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.

Rest in Peace, Christine Buckley

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Christine Buckley gave hope and living voice to the many who suffered in silence in Ireland’s Residential Institutions and throughout their lives.  She will be greatly missed but her strong voice will be heard forever.  Rest in Peace.

Then they put me into a car zoom zoom, beep beep over O’Connell Bridge, past the Ha’penny Bridge, along Capel Street Bridge. All alone all along the Liffey I cried like the canal to the gates of Goldenbridge. At Goldenbridge, the nuns said that they were my sisters now. ‘Now, now, stop that crying or we’ll give you something to cry about. Christ didn’t cry. Christ wasn’t a whinger.’ I cried, I screamed for me ma, yelled for me da. Then all the kids there started to cry like me. We screamed through the clatters in the face, the lashes across the back of our legs, the smashing of our heads against the doors.
‘Mary is our mother now and God is our Father. Repeat, Mary is our mother now and God is our Father. ‘Tis the Divil that has you all crying. ‘Tis the Divil so that we’ll be getting out of here, only the Divil. James, that’s a lovely boy’s name. Stop that crying now. Silence is golden, boys and girls. Silence is golden. St James, a lovely saint.’
I rocked back, I rocked forward. I rocked in silence for a day, for a week maybe two. I cried until I was dry. I bit my lip; I bit my nails; I pissed the bed; I rubbed my eyes; I bit the boy beside me, I bit the girl beside me. They both bit me back. The nuns and the priest battered us all. Screamed at us that we were bold and evil and that they were going to put us into the washing machine to wash our souls of sin, souls of sin, souls of sin. I rocked back and forth till one day somebody came and picked me up into their arms and took me back home, to my ma, to my da and all the family and another new baby. Silence is golden, golden, in Goldenbridge. Ssssssh.  (James X)

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Urgent: Call for a full independent public inquiry into Magdalene Laundry institutions

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We need to call immediately for a ‘full independent public inquiry’ into the Magdalene Laundry system and Mother and baby homes in this country.

As Felice D. Gaer stated last week (United Nations Committee against Torture)

“ the McAleese report lacked many elements of a prompt, independent and thorough investigation, as recommended by the Committee in its Concluding Observations.  Specifically, the Committee has received information from several sources highlighting that the McAleese Report, despite its length and detail, did not conduct a fully independent investigation into allegations of arbitrary detention, forced labour or ill-treatment.  While noting the State party’s response explained that individuals and groups were encouraged to report any evidence of criminal wrong doing directly, the Committee also received information that the State party was presented with extensive survivor testimony in the from of reports by Justice for Magdalenes and was aware of the existence of possible criminal wrong doings, including physical and psychological abuse.

With these factors in mind, the Committee would appreciate further information as to the measures the State party is planning to take to ensure that there is a full inquiry into all complaints of abuse, in accordance with the Committee’s original recommendation? Please clarify whether the State party intends to set up an inquiry body that is independent, with definite terms of reference, and statutory powers to compel evidence, and retain evidence obtained from relevant religious bodies? Would such an inquiry be empowered with the capacity to hold public hearings or obtain access to evidence for survivors or representative groups? Would such an inquiry have the authority to conduct a full-scale investigation into the abuse, and issue a public invitation to submit evidence? Given the nature and duration of institutionalized abuse, as well as the advanced age (and possible geographical remoteness) of some survivors, what steps does the State party intend to take to encourage survivors to lodge complaints?

On the issue of redress for survivors of the Magdalene Laundries, please clarify how the State party intends to ensure that the proposed fund to assist victims and survivors will in fact be primarily used to help such persons, as it has publicly stated it would try to do, rather than being used to cover legal or administrative costs? What measures are being put in place to help institutionalized survivors to engage with the redress processes.

As regards the law commission investigation established following the McAleese report, and headed by President of the Irish Law Reform Commission, Mr Justice John Quirke, the Committee understands that he was charged with investigating the reporting back to the government with recommendations within three months from 19 Feb 2013 as to the “establishment of an ex gratia Scheme (to operate on a non=adversarial basis)” for survivors of the Magdalene Laundries, and to make recommendations as to the criteria that should be applied in assessing the help that the government can provide in the areas of payments and other supports, including medical cards, psychological and counseling services and other welfare needs. The committee is concerned that his work is premised on the incomplete investigations carried out by MrAleese committee. In this regard, the Committee looks forward to learning of the results of his investigation. Please also clarify whether the Quirke investigation process will have independent statutory powers, be transparent and also subject to an appeals process, and independently monitored”

 

Felice D. Gaer 22nd May 2013 United Nations Human Rights office of the High Commissioner