Former resident of mother and baby institution threatens legal action

By Rebecca Black (PA)

A former resident of a mother and baby institution in Northern Ireland has threatened legal action over Stormont’s failure to deliver a public inquiry and redress.

In 2021 Stormont was urged to establish a public inquiry to investigate mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and workhouses in Northern Ireland and deliver financial redress.

Research has indicated that more than 14,000 women and teenage girls passed through those institutions in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1990.

Many were found to have been mistreated, held against their will and forced to give up children for adoption.

Earlier this week First Minister Michelle O’Neill said a public consultation would open this week into the inquiry and financial redress.

She said she hoped to see a draft Bill introduced in the Assembly before the end of this year.

A former resident of the Good Shepherd Mother and Baby Home has said they intend to take legal action over the failure to implement the recommendations.

In their pre-action letter, the survivor said they were taken to the former institution by their mother and a priest when they were three months pregnant.

There, they said, they were “allocated a cell” and undertook cleaning work, isolated from the other residents.

“One day I was called to see the head nun. She told me that my baby was going to be put up for adoption.

“It was still early in my pregnancy. This made me really upset, I could not stop crying. I sat in my room every day staring at the walls. I felt trapped and isolated.

“The nun made me feel that I was rotten and unwanted because I was pregnant and not married,” they said.

They described their stay as having had a “severe impact” on their mental health, and stressed the need for redress for those who went through mother and baby institutions.

“The recommendations of the Truth Recovery Design Panel were an important first step in the process towards redress and recognition,” they said.

“The panel delivered its recommendations to the Executive in October 2021. The Executive, despite promises and assurances, has failed to implement the recommendations to honour those promises and assurances to date.

“I want to challenge that failure and that delay.”

Solicitor Aine Rice of KRW Law is acting for the applicant.

A previous academic research study outlined the scale of mistreatment endured by thousands of women and girls in the institutions.

The work, by Queen’s University and Ulster University, found that more than 14,000 girls and women went through the doors of mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and other institutions in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1990.

It found that many were mistreated, held against their will and forced to give up children for adoption.