Missing babies

The scandal over the treatment of women like Bridget, Deirdre and Catherine has been brewing in Ireland for over 20 years. But the women say their experiences have never been officially recognised by the Irish state or by the Catholic Church. There have been strong words from politicians but there has never been a full state apology. No compensation has been paid. While visiting Ireland, Pope Francis made a general apology for the Church’s treatment of mothers and babies and senior Irish churchmen have also made expressions of regret. But there has been no comprehensive apology and redress from the Church in Ireland. All three women gave evidence to the state inquiry opened in 2015 - the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. On 17 April it reported back on just one aspect of the scandal - burial practices. According to the commission, more than 900 children died at Bessborough - or at hospital having been transferred. But the burial places of only 64 are known. The Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary - the order that ran Bessborough - said it did not know where the other 800 children who died at the home were buried. The commission said this was “difficult to comprehend”. The Angels’ Plot at Bessborough - the place Bridget was shown - only has one child buried there, the commission says. It is not thought to be William. The commission thinks it is likely that at least some of the children are buried in unmarked graves in the rest of the 60-acre Bessborough site, but does not consider it feasible to excavate the whole area. At least 14 women also died at Bessborough. Their burial places are also unknown. “I feel deeply for the families who may not get the answer they are seeking,” said Children's Minister Katherine Zappone. “In a lot of cases, the evidence is not there.” William may be buried at Cork District Cemetery, but the commission has been unable to get records from that cemetery. A couple of years ago, Bridget placed a plaque for William at Bessborough, but her search goes on. And the commission’s final report into Ireland’s system of mother and baby homes has been postponed until 2020, after a series of delays and extensions. Until it concludes, there will be no apology and no practical help for any of the people who spent time in these homes. Mothers and children who passed through Bessborough’s doors report difficulties and long delays obtaining documents when trying to trace their relatives or access health records to find out if they were part of vaccine trials carried out in the 1960s. Mari Steed, one of the Bessborough children that Bridget remembers, was adopted at 18 months by a Catholic family in Philadelphia. She eventually found her mother Josie in the UK and visited every year until her mother's death in 2013. When Mari was able to get her full file from Bessborough she found that she had been in a vaccine trial in the 1960s. Her mother Josie said she had not been consulted. Mari believes there will be no accountability for what went on at the home. Noelle Brown was adopted from Bessborough in 1967. She decided to trace her birth parents in 2002. Countless delays followed. Her mother had died in the 1990s. A few months ago she got her full file from Bessborough. But it has been heavily redacted and much of the rest is barely legible. She still can’t find out whether she was subject to the medical trials that were carried out there in the 1960s and 70s. She says the commission told her it is prohibited from disclosing any information related to the trials.

Noelle Brown is now an actress

“You come up against this all the time. Another bloody letter from someone going, ‘Disappear, we’re not going to help you’.” Under current Irish legislation, adopted people have no statutory right to their birth certificates or early life files. Bridget has struggled - with the help of Carmel - to get her documents. But she can’t get more evidence on the medical treatment that preceded William's death. A leaked memo from the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) in 2012 stated that the infant mortality rate in Bessborough between 1935 and 1960 was about seven to eight times higher than the national rate at the time. But until all the records are forensically analysed, the history of what really happened inside Bessborough will remain unknown.

With the state inquiry’s report taking so long to complete, women like Bridget, Deirdre and Catherine are losing hope of finding the truth. Bridget blames the Church. “If they told the truth, even now if they came out with the truth it would be something. But they’re still denying what happened.” The office of the Archbishop of Armagh, Catholic Primate of All Ireland, when contacted for this piece said it would not respond until the report was published. The Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary refuses to discuss individual cases. “All records... were passed to Health Service Executive (HSE ) in 2011. We are co-operating fully with the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation.” The last time a representative gave an interview was in June 2014 to the now-defunct TV3. Sister Sarto denied claims that adoptions were forced and said nuns were providing a service to women cast aside by society with no other option. “We gave our lives to looking after the girls. And we’re certainly not appreciated for doing it.” Deirdre thinks the system she went through was the fault of both Church and state, but also of a wider society where people looked the other way. “We did nothing wrong and yet we suffered for it, we suffered loss, banishment, judgement, trauma, grief.” Even when the inquiry’s report is published, the women worry that the legislation underpinning it suggests the full archive will be sealed.

Catherine Coffey O’Brien