In a religious culture rooted in shame, up to half a million children in the UK and Ireland were put up for adoption without their mothers’ consent.
Articles on Mother and baby homes
Displaying all articles
The inequality, stigma and eugenic thinking that led to their acquisition is often obscured or erased.
The trauma these women endured is unimaginable.
There is a slight tendency in the film to conflate the laundries with mother and baby homes.
The film explores how much easier is it to conform to social norms than step outside them.
Cultural historian Clair Wills reflects on the secret cousin born in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home, which at one point had a morality rate of 75% – and her family’s complicity in a national tragedy.
In the 1940s, Britain’s nascent welfare state was designed around male financial responsibility for their families – unmarried mothers were intentionally disregarded.
The conservative Catholic moral code that underpinned adoption in Ireland penalised vulnerable women and their children. Now a proposed new law seeks to redress the impact of this legacy of shame.
Most of those incarcerated in mid-20th century Ireland were held in psychiatric hospitals, which have kept their secrets until today. This must change.
Top contributors
-
Fellow Emeritus in Film Studies, Trinity College Dublin
-
Vice-Chancellor Illuminate Fellow, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen's University Belfast
-
PhD candidate, English Literature, Australian National University
-
Professor of Criminology, University College Dublin
-
Research Fellow and Director of Widening Participation, Lancaster University
-
Lecturer in Criminology, University of Sheffield
-
Professor of Bioarchaeology, Durham University
-
Professor of Biological Anthropology, University of Otago
-
Professor of Contemporary Irish History, Trinity College Dublin
-
Professor in Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin
-
Associate Professor of Health History, Glasgow Caledonian University