Government Names 14 Mother-and-baby Homes to Be Investigated

Irish Examiner
January 9, 2015

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/14-mother-and-baby-homes-to-be-investigated-657404.html


A three-year investigation into Mother and Baby Homes will be conducted following the revelations last year about the deaths of almost 800 children at the Tuam home, the Government confirmed today.

The inquiry will be able to exhume graves if it needs to, the Minister said.

The inquiry will look at 14 homes and a representative sample of County Homes and report on various aspects within 18 months.


It will examine the entry and exit arrangements at the homes, living conditions, post-mortems, burials, vaccine trials and if any residents were treated differently on any grounds such as race, disability and religion.

Children's Minister James Reilly's announced the terms of reference for the commission this morning.

"I believe that this Commission will be critically important in coming to terms with our own history, and in understanding who we are as a people," he said.

"I hope that this Commission, which has all the powers needed to get the information required, will help us all come to a better understanding of how we treated mothers and children in these homes, and how we can learn from this in the future."

List of Mother and Baby Homes to be examined:

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, Eglington 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 Eglington House, Eglington 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 ccommodation period of these mothers and children."

*Historical 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.