Uncovering The Culture Of Misogyny In Ireland That Killed Thousands Of Babies

Illustration (Source: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Thousands of babies and children have reportedly died in 18 homes of mothers and babies over eight decades in Ireland. The house is an institution run by the church and where unmarried women can secretly deliver babies, often against their will.

Citing CNN, Wednesday January 13, 2021, the Commission for the Inquiry of the Home for Mother and Infant, announced 9,000 deaths as part of the final findings of a nearly six-year investigation. About 56,000 people, from girls aged 12 to women in their 40s, were sent to 18 mother and child homes. Of the 18 houses also being investigated, it is where about 57,000 children were born.

Prior to 1960, the home of the mother and baby did not save the lives of children who were thought to be the result of illegitimate relationships. Yet they appear to significantly reduce the survival prospects for newborns. The report also called the infant mortality rate "the most troubling thing."

Speaking on Tuesday January 12, 2021, Irish Prime Minister (PM) Micheál Martin said the report exposed a black veil of a deeply misogynistic culture in Ireland for decades. The report also seems to reveal the significant failures of the state and society.

The 2,800-page report was released just days after its main findings were leaked to a national newspaper. Susan Lohan, co-founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance and member of a special survivor group designated to advise the government, said leaked excerpts from the report suggest the Irish government may be looking for ways to "downplay" the large-scale human rights violations that have occurred in in these houses.

Philomena Lee, one of the survivors of the mother and child home, spent years looking for the son she was forced to give up for adoption. She has waited decades for the moment when Ireland reveals how tens of thousands of unmarried mothers and the tens of thousands of their beloved children, were torn apart simply by not being married at the time of childbirth.

During his time at the mother and baby's home at Sean Ross Convent, Lee said that he was deprived of freedom, independence, and autonomy. She had to submit to the "tyranny of the nuns" who said mothers there had to atone for sins by "working for us and handing over children to nuns for adoption."

Lee, whose life story was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Judi Dench, added that she became a nun's butt during labor. The nuns told him that "the pain is punishment for promiscuity."

An apology attempt

For this matter, the Irish Government plans to apologize for the incident. However, Susan Lohan, one of the founders of the Adoption Rights Alliance, disagrees with this move. He said apologies should not be made until survivors have had the opportunity to read and digest the long report.

This can take up to weeks. The survivors are expected to receive an official State apology from the Irish PM on Wednesday January 13 local time.

However, the report did not address the testimony of some survivors who said senior members of the Catholic Church forced them into the home of the mother and child. It was their family members who sent them to that place.

"There is no evidence that women are forced to enter mother and baby homes by the church or state authorities. Most women have no other alternative," the report said.

In a statement released by Archbishop Eamon Martin, he said: "I accept that the Church is clearly part of a culture where people are often stigmatized, judged and rejected." He apologized to survivors and those affected for the "prolonged injury and emotional distress it has caused."