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A lot of us are going to have an emotional day today, when @MichealMartinTD stops speaking the pain and stigma won't magically lift, I know having lived with it everyday since 1988, when I entered and subsequently left Ard Mhuire without my baby I felt it #motherandbabyhomes
Stigma is like a cancer and I can say that with full experience of both, it eats away at every part of your being, it taints all that should be good in your life, creeping into your DNA, rewiring your brain to feel less than #motherandbabyhomes
This was put there on purpose by religious power brokers, government and society in an effort to control us through humiliation, to strip us of our most natural relationship, with our children, to say it was devastating is a gross understatement #motherandbabyhomes
It has been the heaviest of burdens for us to bear, often in total silence for many decades, knawing at our self belief, our self worth, terrified to be found out because of our successful brainwashing from what we saw happen to others who "fell" #motherandbabyhomes
If you listen, also look inwards, ask who is it you judge less than right now, who do you see as not worthy, ask yourself is that something you want to be part of inflicting on another human, their child? it wasn't right then, it's not right now #Stigma #motherandbabyhomes
Nothing changes the past, or the futures robbed from us, words today won't heal us, so we can be swept away again, it was fundamentally wrong it altered, mental health, physical health, relationships it was a paradigm shift, ripples extended far, generational #motherandbabyhomes
Words do however bring acknowledgement of wrongful action, and that sends a powerful signal to society that we have/are changing and won't tolerate people being treated as less than, we are not more except in our own ego, a lie to feel powerful, don't abuse it #motherandbabyhomes
Ireland is different now, but we still have a ways to go, that doesn't mean losing who we are, being diluted versions of Irish, we can though strive to be the land of a thousand welcomes for all residents, a truly Irish value or false advertising, you have the power to decide 
