Thousands of children died in homes for unwed mothers and their babies run by the Catholic Church in Ireland between the 1920s and the late 1990s, a "staggering" death rate that maintained brutal living conditions.
The report on the results of the investigation, which looked into conditions in 18 mother-and-child homes where young women were hidden from society for decades, is the latest in a series of documents exposing some of the Catholic Church's darkest chapters.
The investigation found that 18 children died in 9.000 institutions, and the mortality rate in the homes was 15 percent, according to the report.
Relatives claim the babies were abused because they were born out of wedlock and their mothers were seen as a stain on Ireland's reputation as a devout Catholic state.
Government figures show that the death rate of children in the homes, where tens of thousands of women including rape victims are sent to give birth, is often five times higher than that of married couples.
57 children were born in the homes covered by the investigation, and the largest number of pregnant women admitted was in the 000s and 1960s. A large number of children born in homes were adopted or placed in orphanages run by nuns, where they were often victims of abuse.
The Irish government will officially apologize for the pain caused to the residents of the homes, and Prime Minister Michael Martin said the report describes a very dark and difficult chapter in Irish history.
"As a country, we have to face the full truth of our past," said Martin and added that "the hard truth is that the whole society was an accomplice" in this scandal. "We did this to ourselves - we treated women extremely badly, we treated children extremely badly," he said yesterday.
"We had a completely perverted attitude towards sexuality and intimacy, and young mothers and their sons and daughters were forced to pay a terrible price for that perversion."
"As a society we have adopted judgmental behavior, perverse religious morality and control".
Children's Affairs Minister Roderick O'Gorman said that "the report shows that Ireland has had a repressive and brutally misogynistic culture for decades, in which stigma robbed the future of unwed mothers and their children."
The Irish government has promised to provide financial support and legislation to exhume and, if possible, identify the remains of the children.
The inquiry into Ireland's mother and child homes was launched six years ago after local historian Catherine Corles found death certificates for almost 800 children from the Bon Secour Home in Tuam, but only two reports of burials.
Her research led to the discovery of a mass grave.
Corles, who grew up in Tuam with her family, said her research was prompted by disturbing childhood memories of thin children being segregated from other students at her school.
The commission's report states that 802 children, ranging from newborns to three-year-olds, were buried in a former septic tank beneath a home in Tuam.
The home in Tuam operated from 1925 to 1961 and was demolished in the 1970s.
The reputation of the Church in Ireland has been shaken by a series of scandals due to pedophilia among priests, abuse, forced adoption of children and other painful topics.
During his first visit to Ireland in 2018, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for the scandal.
In the report of the commission that conducted the investigation, it is stated that although homes for mother and child existed in other countries, the number of unmarried mothers who were in institutions in Ireland is probably the highest in the world.
"In the years before 1960, mother and child homes did not save the lives of 'illegitimate' children, but rather seemed to significantly reduce their chances of survival," the report states. "The very high death rate was known to both local and national authorities at the time and was recorded in official documents".
The Association of Home Survivors in Ireland said the report was "truly shocking", but expressed dissatisfaction that the inquiry did not include a number of other similar institutions and that it did not sufficiently highlight the role the state played in running the homes.
"What happened was just one aspect of a state that was completely against women both legislatively and culturally," the association said.
They used lies and manipulations to prevent contact between children and mothers
The policies of religious organizations in Ireland and the state prevented survivors of mother and child homes from contacting their relatives.
Adoptees in Ireland do not have the right to access information and documents about who their biological parents and relatives are.
A report published yesterday stated that priests, nuns and officials resorted to lies and manipulations to prevent contact between mothers and children and other relatives.
"This is a crucial moment. I'm sorry it took so long," 70-year-old Anne Harris, who gave birth to a son in 1970 at a home in County Cork, told The Guardian.
"Irish society looked down upon children born out of wedlock. Women are sent to such institutions so that they will not be seen," said Harisova, who wrote a book about her experiences in the home and later finding her son.
Joan Burton, a former deputy prime minister who was born in one of the homes in 1949, said the inquiry's findings were historic in documenting a system that could have been forgotten in a country finally breaking free from the grip of the Catholic Church.
"The report reveals, especially to a new generation of young people, what Ireland once did to women who had the audacity to love outside of marriage and give birth to children they had to give up," she wrote for the Irish Independent.
"It will give us as a society an opportunity to ask why this kind of brutality has been tolerated for so long."
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