Mothers Announce Own Public Inquiry Into Genocide

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11th April, 2017 - Irish First Mothers is to conduct it's own Public Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes and practices of coercion in pregnancy . The inquiry will feature broadcast of public testimony relevant to our genocide claim against the Irish State -which was served by recorded delivery on the Attorney General today. [Tracking: RL573384676IE ]

The first internet public broadcasts of testimony will be on 19th and 20th April, 2017.

Testimony will be released on the IrishFirstMothers.com website. More on the timing, and schedule will be released next week, but for now we plan bi-weekly broadcasts featuring live and pre-recorded testimony.
  • Testimony will be by members of Irish First Mothers who are living witnesses of this genocidal system. Some witnesses will be named, some first name only, some a pseudonym. Witnesses will include some who have been before the Commission. Our first two living witnesses have not.

  • The time period and institution / hospital /agency etc will be named - unless that would make the testimony problematic legally. If so, we will withhold identifying details and let the rest of the witness testimony speak for itself.

  • Initial testimonies will come from members who are well known due to being in the group a long time. We will be inviting new people to come forward to us as we go - but as we have 70+ members, we have lots of reliable testimony on hand already - mostly unheard in any venue to date.

  • We will accept testimony of any kind about coercion in pregnancy or coercion afterwards in adoption proceedings - no matter where or when it happened: psychiatric institutions, hospitals, family homes, live-in type residential homes, etc.

  • Witnesses will be speaking either from home comfort by phone, or in studio. Speaking to other mothers in empathetic setting, will we think be empowering for them, and for the whole group. We've raised each others consciousness and helped each other to heal. There are tens of thousands of others who will be drawn "out" to speak of what they underwent. We feel these pioneering mothers will help those coming after.

REACTION TO MINISTER'S COMMENTS ON 2nd INTERIM REPORT

Irish First Mothers is shocked to find that the deliberations of the second interim report into Mother and Baby Homes omits to reference the welfare of mothers.

Some of the mothers who have appeared before the Commission have ended up in hospital due in part to their unsympathetic treatment at the hands of the Commission.

These difficulties have been well detailed in a report by Conor Lally in the Irish Times, and last month caused the mothers to suspend cooperation with the Commission.

Nevertheless, the Commission and the Minister refer only to the smaller number of persons who spent time as infants in institutions -omitting to address the primary substantive body of affected persons.

Minister Zappone has met all relevant groups since assuming her responsibilities. She never met with Irish First Mothers. Her resulting failure to address our issues -shocking as it is- is therefore unsurprising.

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