Mother-and-baby home survivors advised of deadline

The co-chairs of the panel - Prof Leanne McCormick and Prof Sean O'Connell - are urging survivors and their families to register in time to ensure their voices are heard

People who want to share their experiences of Northern Ireland's mother-and-baby homes have been advised there is a cut-off point to testify ahead of a public inquiry.

Former residents who spent time in the homes, or working in Magdalene laundries, are urged to register their interest in taking part before the deadline on 1 May.

To date, more than 140 people have provided personal testimonies to an independent panel of experts who are investigating how the institutions operated.

The panel is particularly keen to hear from anyone with experience of or information about Protestant-run homes in order to provide a fuller picture of the whole system.

They said they have "developed a sensitive and trauma-informed approach" so the testimony process would be "respectful and non-adversarial" towards survivors.

The experts' final report is due to be published later this year, and the panel's findings will help inform the forthcoming public inquiry into the institutions.

It is believed more than 10,500 women were admitted to mother-and-baby institutions in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1990.

Run by religious, state and charitable organisations, they housed women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage.

A further 3,500 women and girls were sent to laundries or industrial homes where many of them had to work without pay.

Marianvale in Newry was one of the mother-and-baby homes in Northern Ireland

Truth Recovery Independent Panel

In 2021, Stormont's devolved government agreed to order an independent investigation into the institutions and their treatment of women and children.

The Truth Recovery Independent Panel, which is carrying out preparatory investigations, is also examining the homes' role in adoption and fostering.

In addition, the panel is investigating the practice of cross-border adoption in which babies were separated from single mothers and sent outside the state.

The institutions included in the Truth Recovery Independent Panel's investigation are:

• Deanery Flats

• Hopedene Hostel

• Kennedy House/Church of Ireland Rescue League, Belfast

• Malone Place/Belfast Midnight Mission Maternity Home Belfast

• Marianvale, Newry, Mother and Baby Institution

• Marianville, Belfast

• Mater Dei Hostel, Belfast

• Mount Oriel

• Thorndale House, Salvation Army, Belfast

• Workhouses across Northern Ireland

• Magdalene Laundries

• St Mary's, Magdalene laundry, Belfast

• St Mary's, Magdalene laundry, Londonderry

• St Mary's Magdalene laundry, Newry

Information on Protestant-run homes sought

The co-chairs of the panel - Prof Leanne McCormick and Prof Sean O'Connell -urged survivors and their families to register in time to ensure their voices are heard.

"To gain the fullest picture possible, we continue to appeal to members of the Protestant community or anyone with information relating to Protestant-run homes in our remit to consider coming forward," they said.

"We are also appealing to the diaspora across the UK, and internationally in America, Canada, and Australia to make their voice heard."

They added they are seeking testimony from anyone who with information about organisations involved in the "forced separation of a birth mother from an infant".

The panel can be contacted by emailing [e-mail] or by phoning 028 9052 0263.

Interim compensation payments

Separate to the Truth Recovery exercise, Stormont's Executive Office has proposed a redress scheme for people who spent time in mother-and-baby homes.

Last summer it consulted the public on a proposal to offer a standardised interim payment of £10,000 to anyone who spent at least 24 hours in a home.

The consultation added this could be followed by further individually-assessed payments, based on survivors' personal circumstances, when the inquiry concludes.

A total of 269 responses to that public consultation were received but the results have not yet been published.