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On the subject of the #motherandbabyhomesreport I just want to draw attention to one of many issues.
Bizarrely, as @SarahAnneBuckle has mentioned, on p22 the report states: there is no evidence that unmarried mothers were ever discussed at Cabinet during the 1st 50 years
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Bizarrely, as @SarahAnneBuckle has mentioned, on p22 the report states: there is no evidence that unmarried mothers were ever discussed at Cabinet during the 1st 50 years
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A quick thread this, drawing entirely on excellent reporting by @CaelainnH on Dáil debates on the subject.
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Some relevant oireachtas debates from the period:
Illegitimate children act 1930
Report of the carrigan committee 1931
Legislation regulating private maternity homes 1934
Adoption act 1953
Amended 1964
Illegitimate children bill 1974
Etc.
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Illegitimate children act 1930
Report of the carrigan committee 1931
Legislation regulating private maternity homes 1934
Adoption act 1953
Amended 1964
Illegitimate children bill 1974
Etc.
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The report stated that there was “no public outcry” about infant mortality running at 5 times the mainstream population among illegitimate children; or about the rights and freedoms of their mothers.
Some quotes show that these matters were fully debated. 5/
Some quotes show that these matters were fully debated. 5/
In a 1924 report quoted in the dáil: the illegitimate child is “proof of the mother’s shame”. 6/
In 1964, minister for justice Charles haughey explains that his job is to maintain the stigma around illegitimacy
Haughey was contested by a labour senator Timothy mcauliffe. “These girls should be sent to maternity hospitals like every other mother”, he said. “These children should have the same rights as all other children”.
I’ll return to this later: it is just snaps from @CaelainnH’s excellent book.
I want to be clear that “culture” and “society” are products of human decisions. There is always a paper trail. The commission might have looked.
No matter, because others have.
I want to be clear that “culture” and “society” are products of human decisions. There is always a paper trail. The commission might have looked.
No matter, because others have.
Enter @MichaelDHiggins, Mary Robinson & senator John Horgan, with their illegitimate children bill (1974). It didn’t pass. Augustine Martin - who later taught me in UCD - argued that women would pretend men fathered their babies to blackmail them.
In 1974, minister for justice Patrick Cooney argues that “adoption is better for the illegitimate baby than to be cared for by its mother.”
Mary Robinson pushed for constitutional protection of single mothers and children as a family.
Mary Robinson pushed for constitutional protection of single mothers and children as a family.
There are so many more examples of how social mores were debated, challenged, supported and opposed, not alone in the oireachtas but in institutions, county councils, and of course churches and bishops palaces up and down the country.
Republic of Shame pieces together the components of the society that enabled the institutionalisation of pregnant women. My review of the book tries to highlight the components of what Hogan calls the shame industrial complex: https://stingingfly.org/review/republic-of-shame/
Around the world, governments continue to argue that they can't be held accountable for violence against women because of custom, tradition and religion. https://www.peacewomen.org/content/csw-57-unholy-alliance
This places women in an invidious position: having to denounce their own culture, their own people, in order to ask for recognition of the harm done to them.
We turn our backs on women when we say that violence is "a part of their culture": we do this to Muslim women, Mincéirí.
We turn our backs on women when we say that violence is "a part of their culture": we do this to Muslim women, Mincéirí.
And now we're doing it to white Irish women. You wouldn't understand. It's just the way things were. It was the culture of the time.
Women are smothered under this blanket of context. It's not ok. The only option is to listen to them. http://clannproject.org/commission-report/
Women are smothered under this blanket of context. It's not ok. The only option is to listen to them. http://clannproject.org/commission-report/
I'm not a victim or survivor or even a researcher of Ireland's institutional past. My concerns are stigma, gender, nation and migration.
There are so many important comments on this report this week - I offer a post-colonial feminist perspective.
I'll shut up + listen to victims
There are so many important comments on this report this week - I offer a post-colonial feminist perspective.
I'll shut up + listen to victims
