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Exclusion of institutions from inquiry concerning to mother-and-baby groups

Groups representing mothers and their children question why some institutions may not be included.

A NUMBER OF groups representing the women and children that were in mother and baby homes have raised concerns about the interdepartmental report published today.

The new Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, James Reilly published the report examining what the government know about the homes. Judge Yvonne Murphy was also announced as the chairperson of the Commission of Investigation into mother and baby homes.

Omissions

While Paul Redmond, spokesperson for the Coalition of Mother and Baby Homes Survivors (CMABS) said that report published today was “reasonably comprehensive” he said there were some “glaring omissions”.

The citing of some holding centres, but the exclusion of the Temple Hill holding centre was concerning, they said.

He said that only including registered births to calculate figures in the nine mother and baby homes instead of the numbers of expectant mothers “also seriously misrepresents and downplays the numbers involved” he claimed.

Redmond also stated that it is presently unclear from the report of the interdepartmental group whether all of the institutions will be included in the terms of reference.

The conclusions from the report seem to indicate that the county homes will not be expressly included in the inquiry, as regards providing redress.

Derek Leinster, Chairperson of the Bethany Survivors Group said the omission of the Protestant West Bank Home from the report was concerning to them.

Ryan Commission

He said the reference that the commission will not re-investigating institutions covered by the Ryan Commission “makes no sense when it comes to Protestant survivors” they added.

We pointed out in our submission, the Ryan Commission did not investigate these institutions. The Ryan Commission stated there were few if any Protestant orphans because, ‘there was a waiting list of would–be adopters’.That was not the experience of the vast majority never adopted in the Westbank Orphanage Co Wicklow, or the foster children in the care of the Nurse Rescue Society, who were used as free farm labourers from the age of five.

“Although the Bethany Home is mentioned, at last, what about the Church of Ireland Magdalen home that was also a so-called mother and baby home?” he asked.

“The abuse this group suffered has never been investigated and, if this report has its way, never will. If this goes through, it will be a disgrace and a farce” said Leinster.

CMABS also expressed disappointment that an international judge was not appointed, and whilst acknowledging Judge Murphy did a commendable job chairing the Murphy Commission into child sex abuse, the coalition said they are aware of concerns by symphysiotomy survivors regarding the redress scheme which Judge Murphy was recently involved in overseeing, they said.

The report published today stated that the time available to the group to survey the many issues and diverse sources of information has been extremely compressed. “Initial examinations have served to highlight the volume and range of records that are potentially relevant to the work of the Commission,”it stated.

Read: Number of maternity homes a difficulty for mother and baby inquiry>

Read: Almost 500 unclaimed infant bodies were sent to anatomy departments from 1940-65>

Read: Over 222 children died in Bethany Home but 1939 report says they appeared ‘happy’>

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4 Comments
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    Mute Michael McLoughlin
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    Jul 29th 2017, 9:52 AM

    Still use my nano for runs and the gym , it’s great.

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    Mute Seeking Truth
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    Jul 29th 2017, 9:47 AM

    We had the classic iPod, then our daughter got the nano5 and our son the nano7. His has broken since, but hers still works.
    Would be nice to have an mp3 player not reliant on the internet to give kids to let them have music in their bedroom….tjat did not have a camera, text messaging, etc. In other words, can we have separate devices for each activity? Oh wait….we used to have it that way…..

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Jul 29th 2017, 12:57 PM

    @Seeking Truth: I bought my daughter a low tech stereo system and CDs! She loves that the radio never buffers!!!

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    Mute Seeking Truth
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    Jul 29th 2017, 5:04 PM

    @Deborah Behan: she has a CD player and can listen to the radio on her iPod nano. But Spotify makes things tricky!! Looking at a Sonos wireless speaker that runs from an app anywhere in the house so the device can stay downstairs but they are fairly spendy!!!

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    Mute Will Keane
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    Jul 29th 2017, 9:46 AM

    Still have me 2gb nano and 80gb iPod 2nd edition and they are still going strong!

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    Mute wiklagirl
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    Jul 29th 2017, 10:30 AM

    I still use my 120gb iPod. Long may it last !

    34
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    Mute WilhelminaMCallaghan
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    Jul 29th 2017, 9:32 AM

    I wish I had any iPod

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    Mute Mr. Dragmire
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    Jul 29th 2017, 11:12 AM

    I won an iPod nano 4th gen in college in 2004. I wasn’t into music really turn so I gave it to my sister who was. A few years later she gave it back when she got a phone that could store music. I used it for podcasts and music then. In 2010 I got an iPod touch 4th gen and used that instead. A couple years ago I gave the iPod nano back to my sister and she uses it for music in her car. It’s a great little device.

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    Mute Catherine Sims
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    Jul 29th 2017, 1:07 PM

    What’s a Walkman ??? :) I’m still hauling a record player around with a long extension lead :)

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    Mute Melina Roberts
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    Jul 29th 2017, 12:09 PM

    I have the first Generation IPod, took great care of it and think I even have the original box for it.I’m hoping it will be worth something in the future

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    Mute Revolting Peasant
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    Jul 29th 2017, 10:57 PM

    @Melina Roberts: It probably will be. Apple recalled them a few years back due to battery issues and replaced them with a newer version (the small square thing whose button always breaks). If the screen wasn’t broken we wouldn’t of sent ours away. It was the original classic design.

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    Mute ivan lynch
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    Jul 29th 2017, 10:20 AM

    Pity…
    very tough to get a device these days that children want and can satisfy parents at the same time.

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    Mute Alan Scott
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    Jul 29th 2017, 1:42 PM

    Over rated over priced just like VW Audi cars.

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    Mute Rui Firmino
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    Jul 30th 2017, 12:02 PM

    @Alan Scott: I got a nano 9 years ago and still works fine. Worth every cent!

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    Mute Ger
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    Jul 29th 2017, 3:13 PM

    I had a 5th gen Nano about 10 years ago. It was a perfect piece of kit and had I not lost it it would probably still be my preferred way to listen to music.

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    Mute Eamonn Sheen
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    Jul 29th 2017, 2:21 PM

    I had a 160gb iPod classic and have an iPod touch but never use it now. I use Spotify on my phone as my main source of music these days.

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    Mute Lily
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    Jul 29th 2017, 6:00 PM

    I waited for the first generation iPod touch. I still have it (though for a time I thought I lost it and got a 4th or 5th generation iPod touch and found the 1st generation one a few days later.)

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    Mute Leitrim303
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    Jul 29th 2017, 7:28 PM

    never liked apple devices

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    Mute Ciaran O Reilly
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    Jul 30th 2017, 7:59 PM

    Classic

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    Mute Charles McCarthy
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    Jul 29th 2017, 8:08 PM

    I have a one of those iPod classics U2 edition jobbys somewhere in the house, never even been used as I can’t find it. I’m sure that it is a great little device when it turns up! : O

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    Mute Gary Mason
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    Jul 29th 2017, 7:55 PM

    Never owned an Apple product and never will.

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    Mute George Roche
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    Jul 30th 2017, 8:11 AM

    My neck’s killing me carting this boombox about.

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