Partners in crime: Collusion between Church and State in Ireland’s notorious mother and baby homes

This paper will give an overview of the appalling abuses that took place in many of the mother and baby homes in Ireland since the foundation of the state in 1922. The homes were supposed to provide safety and support for unwed mothers at a time when there was considerable stigma attached to having sex outside marriage. They were mainly run by religious bodies, predominantly Roman Catholic nuns, and the regimes they established had more to do with punishing the ‘sins’ of the mothers than concern for their welfare and that of their children.

In 2014, the research carried out over several years by local historian Catherine Corless into the Bon Secours Home in Tuam, Co. Galway was reported on in the Mail on Sunday newspaper and the story went viral. Corless’s research suggested that the bodies of nearly 800 babies were buried in a mass grave in the grounds of the home. The international outrage, following decades of revelations about clerical abuse of children, forced the Irish government to investigate. A Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby homes (including the one in Tuam) was set up and eventually issued its report in 2021, after being given several extensions. This presentation will outline the main findings of the report, as well as the many criticisms about the limitations on its terms of reference.