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Sunday World
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Sunday World
Anger at mother and baby home redress scheme as survivors may walk away from inquiry
'It's a disgrace. It compounds the second and third-class status. This is the way it felt on the announcement of that bill. It's almost like we should be grateful.' The shrine dedicated to the children who lost their lives in the Bon Secours Mother and Baby home. Photo:Mother and baby home survivors may walk away from the public inquiry after thousands were excluded from the redress scheme, says a leading campaigner. Mark McCollum, whose mum was sent to the Magdalene laundry in Newry, says plans in a new Stormont bill announced on Monday to refuse compensation to the families of victims who died before 2011 has shaken confidence in the entire process. The campaigner says Stormont should be pursuing the Catholic Church for money as the redress decision is entirely financial. In wake of a dark week for victims of the institutions on both sides of the border, operations have begun in Tuam, Co Galway to exhume and identify the remains of nearly 800 babies and toddlers buried in the sewage system of the former St Mary's home, run by an order of Catholic nuns from 1925 to 1961. Mark McCollum. Mark, who was taken by a social worker from Newry to Donegal at just a few weeks old in 1966 before being adopted, knows individuals desperately hoping the Tuam excavation will return the remains of their siblings. 'I've met some of the guys down there over the last few years and one of them told me 'my sister's in there. That could have been me',' he says. 'It seems to be one of the weeks where you're hearing a lot about this and you think 'there but for the grace of God go I'. Any of us could have ended up in that place. 'It's a disgrace. It compounds the second and third-class status. This is the way it felt on the announcement of that bill. It's almost like we should be grateful.' A 2021 report by Queen's University revealed that more than 10,000 pregnant women and girls were sent to mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1990 because they were unmarried. A third were under 19 and the youngest was 12. They endured harsh conditions, and in the three Magdalene laundries often had to work right up until giving birth, and were then pressured into giving up their children. Following a truth recovery process the Assembly introduced a bill on Monday to set up a public inquiry and a redress scheme, but in a blow to families it has imposed a random date for compensation. The shrine dedicated to the children who lost their lives in the Bon Secours Mother and Baby home. Photo:Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 4th It proposes a payment of £10,000 to eligible survivors and £2,000 to family members of deceased victims, but only if the death occurred on or after September 29 2011. 'We have all been involved in this for the last few years, contributing our experience and we felt this is different, people are listening to us, and all of a sudden it was a slap in the face,' says Mark 'It should go back to the foundation of the state in 1922, that's when the institutions were being set up, that's when the girls started going to these places, and everyone should get recognition, not just an arbitrary date.' His birth mother Kathleen McGuire was just 20 when she was sent to Marianvale, and gave birth in Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry. Mark believes his removal across the border to Nazareth House in Fahan in Donegal by a social worker was also highly questionable. His attempts to find Kathleen were thwarted, and he later found out she had been desperately seeking for him, unsuccessfully because his name had been changed. In 2020 he discovered her identity, and was devastated to learn Kathleen, who spoke to neighbours in England about the son she'd had taken from her, had died in 2000, aged 54. In the same week in 2020 his adoptive mother also died. Kathleen McGuire The dad of two, a retired academic and social justice advocate, believes the redress cut-off date is a cost-saving exercise. 'I could make a claim in my own right but not on behalf of my mum. My daughters couldn't make one on behalf of their granny. 'It's really complicated and very confusing. We thought things could have been and should have been a lot more straightforward and clean cut. 'For a lot of women and a lot of their adoptive children it's too late. A significant number of the women have passed away. 'Time is a luxury a lot of people don't have in this process. It's just frustrating when you have an opportunity to draft a bill, that whoever drafted the bill didn't listen.' He says it's a real concern now that survivors who could be part of the public inquiry have lost faith in the process. When they were informed of the legislation over a Zoom meeting hosted by First Minister Michelle O'Neill earlier this week, there was a stunned silence. 'At the meeting on Monday there were people saying 'I'm not part of this process anymore, I'm walking away',' says Mark. 'Some of the workhouses are also a grey area, whether they're in or they're out, and there shouldn't be grey areas. 'We have spent three years contributing to this process, crafting this legislation and it was red-penned.' He says the silence from the Catholic Church has been deafening. 'There is nothing coming from the Catholic Church or the orders who ran these institutions. 'The state has their responsibility but the church does as well and they're getting off the hook. They have gone to ground hoping it will go away. 'They haven't acknowledged and they haven't apologised,' says Mark.
BBC News
17-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Mother and baby homes survivors 'excluded again' by Executive Bill
A bill to establish a redress scheme for victims of mother and baby homes has been criticised by a survivor as it excludes "thousands" of women and children who McCollum was one of thousands of children born to unmarried mothers in Northern Ireland who were sent to institutions. More than 10,000 pregnant women and girls passed through the secretive institutions, which were largely run by religious orders, from the 1920s until the 1990s.A bill to establish an inquiry into mother and baby homes, Magdalene Laundries and Workhouses - and an associated redress scheme - passed its first stage in Stormont Assembly on Monday. 'No rational' Mark McCollum was born in Marianvale and then taken across the border to an orphanage in County said survivors were "astonished yesterday at the omissions" in the bill."There's an arbitrary date for exclusion of... 29 September 2011, so anybody that died prior to that are not going to be included in the process," he said."That excludes thousands of potential women and girls and their adoptive children who passed away."What is the justification for that other than saving money," he said, adding: "There's no rational for this." Mr McCollum said before seeing the bill, there was "a sense of optimism" but that is no longer the added that mothers and adoptees have "been silenced and stigmatised for so long" and it feel likes they've "been excluded again".He also said the bill "undermines its potential to deliver truth, acknowledgment and justice for the survivors". What is in the bill? It comes after a consultation on proposals to establish an inquiry into mother-and-baby homes was launched last Executive Bill will establish a statutory public inquiry and a statutory redress estimated cost is £80m, which includes almost £60m in initial redress payments to cover approximately 6,600 redress eligible person will receive a payment of £10,000 and a £2,000 payment will be made to each eligible family member on behalf of a loved one who has died since 29 September 2011.A further Individually Assessed Payment (IAP) for the specific harm suffered by an individual will follow the public executive office said a process was already underway to appoint a designate chair of the inquiry. 'Sincere commitment' First Minister Michelle O'Neill said: "These institutions and practices were a product of systemic misogyny. The regime inflicted on women and girls, many while heavily pregnant, was appalling and constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." She added that not only did women have their rights "grossly denied within these institutions, so too did their children, now adults. They too were failed on every level."O'Neill said that the legislation hopefully demonstrates a "sincere commitment" to those "have suffered and been silenced". She thanked those who campaigned for justice. Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said: "We deeply regret the pain and suffering of victims and survivors and today is a testament to their courage as we introduce this important and significant legislation."She added that victims have waited long for answers and that they will "seek to uncover the truth and hold those responsible to account"."We remain committed to addressing this dark period of our past and we want to encourage everyone affected to come forward and be heard," she said. What were the mother-and-baby homes? There was once a network of institutions across the island of Ireland which housed unmarried women and their babies at a time when pregnancy outside marriage was viewed as were more than a dozen such mother-and-baby homes in Northern of them had Catholic-run workhouses known as Magdalene Laundries, where women frequently had to do exhausting, unpaid found that a third of those admitted were under the age of 19, with the youngest child to be admitted aged 12. A number were the victims of sexual crime, including rape and incest, and "strenuous physical labour" was expected of residents late into their women and girls were separated from their children by placing them in children's homes, boarding them out (fostering) or through was also the issue of the cross-border movement of women and children in and out of the last institution in Northern Ireland closed in 1990.
