Race Now Officially Recognised in the Mother & Baby Homes Investigation
On 9 January 2015 for the first time in Irish history, the issue of race will be looked at as part of a Commission of Investigation. Judge Yvonne Murphy will be required under law to identify cases of race discrimination against mixed race children who resided within the 14 Mother and Baby Homes across Ireland. This is a huge achievement for Mixed Race Irish, the campaign group who have been pushing for this result since their inception.
Mixed Race Irish (MRI) were among the advocacy groups who were invited to a private meeting with Minister James Reilly on 9 January to receive the Terms of Reference for the investigation. Conrad Bryan, who attended on behalf of MRI, said “I am genuinely pleased that all our hard work has resulted in this positive outcome. To have included race along with other minority groups is truly historic. The race issue was not classified as a form of abuse in the Ryan Commission, it was actually overlooked. However, this is only a partial victory. Similar to the Magdalene Laundries, many have suffered in other institutions where they spent most of their childhoods. This is an unfortunate lost opportunity. I was also very moved by the numbers of mothers I met who will now have an opportunity to tell their stores to a Confidential Committee. These are mothers who have lost their children to forced adoptions or have been living a lie due to the shame of being in these places”
Conrad Bryan, who has been assisting and doing research for the Mixed Race Irish (MRI) group went on to say that “For too long, our legislators have given lip service to the issue of racism in Ireland and MRI have met with and lobbied Dr James Reilly to include a special examination of institutional racism within these state or religious run Mother and Baby homes. We are also pleased that they have included within article VIII children of Traveller identity and babies with disabilities as well as discrimination based on religion. This is an endorsement of our work and an encouraging sign that in today’s Ireland issues of race and minorities are now being seriously considered at the highest level, and to further support those NGO’s working hard on a daily basis in our communities. The fight against racism now must be fought vocally in the Dáil not only by NGO’s on the streets.”
Along with several advocacy groups MRI lobbied for a full examination of the Vaccine trials, the Welfare of and the long–term impact on the mothers and babies in these homes, Institutional racism, mortality and burial practices and access to all records. The inclusion of St Patricks home Navan Road Dublin, through which many mixed race children passed was a particularly important point for MRI. They have also sought details on why it appears so few mixed race children were adopted out and ended up with temporary/multiple fosterings or simply left in institutions for years. Whilst they did not achieve a separate reporting mechanism on racism, they are however pleased that, for each of the 7 specified areas of investigation, the Commission is to identify the extent of systematic race discrimination.
Mr Bryan was in Dublin to receive the Terms of Reference and said “When we undertook this campaign I was advised, by a leading Irish academic on racism in Ireland, that our challenge will be the extent to which the state and politicians take the issue of race seriously, given past experience. Yesterday was a vindication of the work and commitment we have put into this, with the wonderful support from all our friends. Thank you. I would also like to thank the Irish Times and the Irish Examiner for helping us to raise the issue of Mixed Race Irish in the media. However, I do question the motives behind the Irish Independent’s refusal to give any coverage at all to this issue in their national paper. This is somewhat puzzling and disappointing.”
The next stage is to “pass the bill” in the Dáil on Wednesday 21st January and the Seanad in the following week.