Bit of news. I have been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to
@GIHNYU
at New York University to research the role played by US journalism in bringing the Irish-US adoption scheme (Banished Babies scandal)to light.Thanks to
@Fulbright_Eire
#FulbrightAwards
#FulbrightFamily
Today is my last day in the Examiner. Just want to say thanks to everyone who spoke to me over the 12 or so years as a reporter - either happily or in anger! I always gave my best to the stories. Onto another chapter of life. If you need me, drop me a mail or DM here. Be good!
So a bit of unexpected news, I’ve won a John and Pat Hume Scholarship to undertake a PhD at
@MaynoothUni
next Sept. Delighted given the level of competition for these things and it’ll be a huge help financially. Thanks to
@GavanTitley
for his help and support
I do have a bee in my bonnet on issues like M and B Homes and forced and illegal adoptions. I spent 11 years writing about it with zero access to records. I don’t claim to have the definitive account. I reported honestly + to the best of my ability. I simply asked a question
So, a bit of news. Delighted to be joining
@nuigalway
as a staff lecturer in journalism. Excited to be moving into a new phase of life in academia
@jmcnuigalway
.
The vast majority of women in Mother and Baby Homes were not resident there for long periods. The principal abuse they suffered was the loss of a child - often by forced and illegal means. Basing a redress scheme on time is way of saving money. It makes zero sense
I’ve learned this week it’s that Ireland is a different country. I started writing about forced and illegal adoption in late 2008. It barely made a ripple. Adoption rights activists and countless others for decades. Now it’s moved a nation to action.
#UnsealTheArchive
It's amazing to hear politicians and Ministers talk about the "emerging" issue of St Patrick's Guild and illegal registrations. Dept/AAI have known for years. Dept said an audit wasn't worth it. Here's what I have been writing for yrs
Only twice as a journalist has someone refused accept my greeting shake my hand. One was a nun (turned her back and walked away when I was introduced), the other was a civil servant (declined a handshake). That’s what you get when writing about adoption/illegal adoption
The Dáil will have a full house to Hear V Zelensky talk about human rights abuses in Ukraine. It’s always a much smaller attendance when discussing human rights abuses in Ireland. Funny that
Micheál Martin offering a fairly watery defence of this K Zappone appointment…”we move on” after saying it was wrong. Jesus Christ, abysmal leadership. The worst of Irish cronyism
Dear canvassers for umpteen candidates in local elections, have a look at the car in the driveway and check for a baby seat before you go hammering on a door and ringing a doorbell at anytime between 7pm and 9pm to hand me a bloody leaflet.
If I had one piece of advice for journos in a increasingly shite driven world it’s this: Just because a story is not well read or liked or clicked does not mean it’s not an important story. If it revealing something in the public interest, keep at it.
Joe McHugh says if people are excluded from the Mica scheme he won’t stay in Govt. here’s a stat, 41% of Mother and Baby Homes survivors are excluded from the Govt redress scheme and those included are getting next to nothing. Any TD takers on a resignation threat?
Not really sure where to start with the report. Here’s one thing. It states: “The Commission has not seen evidence of illegal registration of births which occurred in the mother and baby homes and county homes under investigation.”
1/2
Shouldn’t we scrap the Late Late and just have the Tommy Tiernan Show? Or else give Tommy the Friday slot? It’s so much fresher, more imaginative, more bloody interesting.
1/2 Mary Raftery: As soon as we got into those files, we realised actually the State knew all about this. The State knew that children were starving. The State knew that the children were beaten. And the State ignored complaint, after complaint. Even from their own officials.
I don’t understand how Eamon Ryan can say the evidence shows that there’s limited spread of Covid in schools. Are they contacting tracing? Tracking this?
Virtually no debate on a crucial piece of legislation. Plans to that will deny generations of Irish citizens, many of whom continue to be treated as second class citizens, to their own information. Quite a night for democracy and some legacy for this Government and the Greens
For all the platitudes for Sinead O'Connor in newspaper pages, remember the shit the press gave her. For years. Here's a piece I stumbled across in the Indo on 30 August 1993 about what a 'turn off' she was to 500 surveyed men
The legend
@rhasidatadeleke
represents Ireland and the best of the country. We are lucky to have her. The fact she's had to take abuse from so-called patriots says more about them than they'll ever know.
Did I just hear someone on the wireless tell us that landlords who own two or three properties are 'Mom and Pop' landlords. They were called 'millionaires' in my day
It's World Prematurity Day this Sunday. I am not really into writing personal things, but my son was born extremely premature at 25 weeks so I wrote this a few years ago about the long road we faced in 2016. He's three now and flying
Anytime you hear a Govt minister say it’s “difficult” or “complex” to legislate for x, y or z ; remember that’s their actual job. It’s not an answer it’s an excuse
Three years ago, I uncovered evidence that children from the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home were being buried in unmarked graves and paupers graves in Cork city as late as 1990. Think about that. 1990.
This didn’t just happen in our dark past
Why are commentators so surprised by yesterday? It's been happening in libraries, in communities for months. It was all across social media for weeks. They literally said this was the plan
A decapitated statue gets prime coverage on the national airwaves. I have written multiple times about a Magdalene grave in Cork - vandalised, wrong names recorded. These stories never seem to get the same attention.
Here's a quick thread on the Magdalene redress scheme. I have been years writing on this now. Anyway, here goes: Since the scheme was widened - just seven of the 97 women who have applied have received a payment. 14 women have yet to receive an offer over a dispute on dates
Thread:1/9 So, I’ve thought a lot about this before tweeting it as the M and B report is not about me but a section about my work. The Commission has a made a false statements about my work which formed the basis of a Sindo article. Here it goes:
More arrests is Jim O'Callaghans solution to last night's behaviour in Cherry Orchard. That's the problem alright, not enough kids in jail. What about social deprivation? Lack of services? Poverty?
There will be a lot of FF,FG and Green TDs worried about their seats over this. The level of anger out there is palpable. And not just over the issue itself but the manner in which the Cabinet is handling it
In 2019, I received an anonymous letter from DCYA about the issues around the Mother and Baby Homes scandal. Given the events of the past week, I thought people might find it interesting.
The irony is lost on the
@greenparty_ie
that flogs a PR public holiday for women while it introduces a indefensible redress scheme for Mother and Baby Homes survivors.
The
@greenparty_ie
has delivered the first new public holiday in three decades. This Monday will be a holiday to celebrate Lá Fhéile Bríde
It is the first Irish public holiday dedicated to a woman and is therefore a day to celebrate Irish women. I hope you enjoy the holiday!
Evidence that at least 356 previously unknown Irish children were sent to Northern Ireland, Great Britain and a range of other countries for adoption was given to the Department of Health over 20 years ago but never made public. Story in tomorrow’s
@irishexaminer
Imagine being a
@greenparty_ie
member trying to defend the Mother and Baby Home redress scheme. When party loyalty trumps basic decency and logic. The scheme is an outrage
Tusla’s treatment of a woman seeking access to her own data. Warnings to staff not to refer to case as illegal and to “hold our powder” because “that stuff is FOI’able... and it could be used against us if someone takes a case”. This is where
#UnsealTheArchives
database is going
Ireland’s adoption record will not go away. Jackie was forced to sign a consent form as a 16 year old in a false name. All the documents used were made out in bogus names for her and her son. Probably the worst illegal adoption case I’ve come across
Mother and Baby Homes: It's not just that scheme excludes tens of thousands of people. Deliberately. It's the fact that it downgrades the principle trauma - forced/illegal separation of families - in order to ensure the majority get the least redress. Deliberately. To save money
Again, Leo Varadkar trotting out the 'misinformation' line. A previous Govt accused people criticising the Magdalene Laundries redress scheme of spreading 'misinformation'. The Ombudsman later found it had been maladmisistered and wrongly denied people access to redress
So now we are in the bizarre space that the Govt is saying that rejecting the Mother and Baby Homes report risks survivors access to any redress and justice. You couldn’t make this up truly
Here’s a State failure - seven Magdalene women who were granted redress in 2013 died without receiving a penny. That’s before people having to battle for years to be even accepted to the scheme they were wrongfully excluded from
I am really honoured (and shocked) to have been awarded a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship for my PhD. Thanks to
@GavanTitley
and
@MaynoothUni
for their guidance, support and for taking me on! So many others helped me. I will thank you all individually
Congratulations to all the awardees of the 2022 Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarships and Postdoctoral Fellowships! €27 million in funding to support the next generation of researchers.
#LoveIrishResearch
Remember I said this was about more than illegal registrations. And here we are, now 748 adoption cases in one agency which raised concern. Payments, name changes and other irregularities. And yet I kept being told there was no point in an audit
The
#MotherandBabyHomes
commission has now said that audio of witness testimony is retrievable. “The commission has agreed to deposit the audio recordings with the Department; this is in keeping with other actions it is taking to transfer the rest of the archive to the Minister.”
For people who think the religious operate secretly. Tusla told me repeatedly it didn’t keep a register of illegal adoptions - then I found out it did. Then it told me it won’t answer any further queries on illegal registrations
I keep reading about the media not writing abut Mother and Baby Home scandals and related issues like illegal adoption. 10 years I have been doing it - long before it erupted internationally - people need to read something before bloody generalising
People rage at
#stolen
and rightly so but this has been said over and over again. For years. The redress scheme should have people on the streets but it doesn't.
Leo mentions the Laundries to the Pope on the one hand while his Government tells the UN there’s “no credible evidence” of criminal abuse in the laundries
#popeInIreland
In 2018, I found evidence that children from a Mother and Baby Home in Cork (and indeed a separate adoption agency had been buried in a series of unmarked graves - one a paupers grave - as late as 1990. Got very little pick up so here it is again
For those interested my foi cited my
@HollyCairnsTD
is here. The govt logic is is that it would be too distressing for survivors to see the rationae behind a redress scheme it claims helps them
Apparently it is in the 'national interest' to stop people who spent less than six months in an institution as a child from getting redress.
'The general public don't accept this treatment of survivors anymore, it's gone on for far too long'
@HollyCairnsTD
#MotherAndBabyHomes
So Taoiseach has said "we now have very clear evidence" that illegal birth registrations were being done by St Patrick's Guild (SPG). Well, we had very clear evidence about this going back nearly 20 years. Here's a thread
Evidence that at least 356 previously unknown Irish children were sent to NI, GB and a range of other countries for adoption was given to the Department of Health over 20 years ago but never made public.
Surprised this didn’t make more of a splash.
The Govt has deliberately missed the point. Creating a redress scheme based entirely on entirely arbitrary 'length of stay' when the abuse in Mother and Baby Homes is entirely predicated on the forced, and often illegal, separation of families. All to save money
Just want to clarify there is zero truth to the rumours that I’ve been appointed a Special Advisor. No idea where it has come from but untrue. Thanks all!
McAleese archive into M Laundries with Dept of Taoiseach, exempt from FOI, no plans to open it; Retention of Records Bill attempting to seal CICA, RIRB and the RIRRC for 75 years, info and tracing bill and now this. We’ve come a long way haven’t we?
The Dáil agreed unanimously at midday to the
#SocDems
motion to extend the
#MotherandBabyHomes
Commission. A little more than an hour later the government vote down providing time in the Dáil to give effect to this
Breaking: Government expected to announce that under GDPR rules, survivors of Mother and Baby Homes will be access to their records after clarification from Attorney General
No matter what you hear from Mins and TDs about the Mother and Baby Homes Redress scheme being "survivor led". It is not. In fact it explicitly ignores what survivors asked for in the Oak Cosultation - which the Govt itself commissioned. Its about minimising cost and dividing
Reading a section of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission today. Largely on material I obtained. It's hard to fathom just how bad it is. Factually wrong at multiple points, conflating documents with one another. It's actually staggering how badly researched it is
The Mother and Baby Commission on the 2012 HSE documents which I was leaked and wrote about in 2015 is factually incorrect (on basic facts). Even more interesting is how they frame the narrative by quoting just one interviewee. Thread coming and writing a long piece
Currently researching irsh journalism and churh/state scandals. Nell McCafferty was calling things out in the early 70s that plenty journalists still tiptoe around today. Brave when it mattered. RIP
Dear media, illegal birth registrations weren’t discovered by Tusla in 2018 and didn’t emerge in 2016. You give the State too much credit and ignore the fact that plenty of people were screaming about it and being ignored by said State agencies
Its still astonishes me that the fact that, in five years of operation, a State inquiry finds burial locations for just 64 of some 900 deaths in a mother and baby home and it's not a bigger story. And that's before you even talk about adoption practices...
The Govt using the tried and tested means of splitting victims. Basing abuse on length of stay, which is irrelevant, when the abuse is the forced separation of families.
I think there's also a misconception amongst the public that all journalism is like the RTÉ top 10. In general, salaries are abysmal. Where i worked there was no salary scale, I left on less money. A lot of journos in this country take on massive stress for peanuts
“And no matter how long ago it was, or how different in Ireland it may have been, every person young or old has a right to truth and justice" - Simon Harris.
His Govt haven't done much for those who didn't make it out of Mother and Baby Homes
Ireland’s adoption record will not go away. Jackie was forced to sign a consent form as a 16 year old in a false name. All the documents used were made out in bogus names for her and her son. Probably the worst illegal adoption case I’ve come across
Pretty poor research on RTE here. a basic Google of my stories would reveal this exact issue in respect of St Patrick's Guild was reported directly to the DCYA by the Adoption Authority in 2013...I give up
9. Journalists can be wrong. I have always reported in good faith, honestly and to the best of my ability. But I won’t accept my reputation being questioned by false claims that I didn’t report certain “caveats”. Particularly when those caveats have been taken out of context
If you hear any minister or govt politician say that the Govt listened to Mother and Baby Homes survivors when drawing up this redress scheme - the Oak Report shows you, categorically, that that is a lie
While a lot of focus is on burials today, let's remember that young girls were told to sign fake names on consent forms in Bessborugh and almost 50 years later Tusla staff are told to not refer to the case as illegal in case she takes a legal challenge
Raftery was speaking about Industrial School scandal but this culture persists. Illegal birth registrations and adoptions reveal the same systemic failing. The State ignored evidence for decades. Its why the State remains so protective of these records. Same playbook all the time
Worth remembering, files of vaccine trial victims in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home were altered in 2002 — just weeks after the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse sought discovery of records from the order running the home.
I was asked today if I miss journalism. I don't.I don't miss the stress, anxiety, worry, taking abuse off people for doing your best, people accusing you of things without basis. I thought I'd miss it but leaving it was incredibly liberating and good for my mental health. Be nice
Govt says you criticise an unjust redress scheme for survivors of Mother and Baby Homes, you delay it unnecessarily and cause hurt, ditto re NMH. Spot the playbook here.
The general scheme of the Mother and Baby Homes Redress Scheme is a scandal - goes unnoticed. we are quite something for human rights abuses. But Tony Holohans job is the biggest story in Ireland
I feel the urge to say this again… the
@IrishTimes
piece which speculated I was a ministerial advisor some time ago was 100% wrong. I AM NOT!! I’m sick shit of having to repeat it