Mother and baby homes: NI-born survivor 'abandoned again'

A woman from Dublin, born into a mother and baby home in Northern Ireland, has said she feels "abandoned again" because she is excluded from a new compensation scheme.

Sinead Buckley was born in 1972 to an unmarried woman from the Republic of Ireland.

At that time her mother, Eileen, was living in Marianvale in Newry.

A midwife in Dublin, Eileen came north because of the fear and stigma associated with being a single mother.

Marianvale was one of a network of institutions across the island of Ireland which housed unmarried women and their babies at a time when pregnancy outside marriage was viewed as scandalous.

After the birth in Newry's Daisy Hill Hospital, an adoption agency in the Republic arranged for Eileen's baby to be adopted by a family in Dublin.

Ms Buckley grew up and still lives in Dublin, but never got to meet her birth mother.

Eileen died during a Covid lockdown which meant she endured the heartbreak of watching her mother's funeral over the internet.

Ms Buckley had a difficult childhood and a long, frustrating search for her birth parents

This week, the Republic of Ireland will open an €800m (£684m) redress scheme for survivors of its own mother and baby homes.

Ms Buckley is one of thousands of Irish adoptees who will not qualify, despite her decades-long battle with the Irish state to access her birth identity and family medical history.

"I grew up with a sense of rejection and abandonment and I feel like I've just been completely abandoned again," she told BBC News NI.

"I used to be proud to be Irish, I'm not anymore. I'm not Irish - what I am?"

Ireland's Department of Children said that Marianvale was outside the Republic's jurisdiction, adding there were "processes ongoing in Northern Ireland to respond to these legacy issues".

But as a Dubliner, born to parents from the Republic, Ms Buckley said she cannot understand why she is excluded from the Irish redress scheme "because I was born a few miles over the border and adopted back here".

The Marianvale home in Newry opened in 1955 and closed in 1984

Who qualifies for compensation?

Under the rules, mothers who spent even one night in an eligible institution in the Republic will receive compensation.

Payments start at €5,000 (£4,275) and rise incrementally based on length of stay.

But former child residents only qualify if they spent six months or more in homes.

Marianvale is not on the list of eligible institutions, but even if it was, Ms Buckley would still not be entitled to compensation because it appears she was resident for less than six months.

An aerial view of the Marianvale home in Newry before it was demolished

"I wish someone would explain the six-month thing to me because we've suffered through life," she said.

"There's absolutely no humanity in this decision."

She added she paid Irish taxes all her life and now the Irish state "isn't recognising me".

"For me it's not about the money, it's about the principle," she said. "I want to be vindicated."

'Where do I belong?'

Adoption records show her mother was engaged to a Tipperary man when she became pregnant, but Eileen's family opposed her relationship.

When she entered Marianvale, her fiancé was not even told he was about to become a father.

The adoption was arranged by Cunamh, formerly known as the Catholic Protection and Rescue Society of Ireland.

Sinead Buckley was brought up in a Dublin family as one of three adopted children

"If the adoption was arranged from counties in the south and agencies in the south - run by convents and nuns in the south - and women from the south were in there and the children were adopted back into the south... it's just a loophole to get out of paying anybody money," Ms Buckley said.

Border babies

Her cross-border journey was not unique.

A recent report into Northern Ireland's mother and baby homes calculated that more than 550 babies were moved to the Republic between 1930 and 1990.

"Here in the north, the campaigners have been calling for their public inquiry and redress for more than a decade," said solicitor Claire McKeegan, who acts on behalf of survivors of institutional abuse in Northern Ireland.

In 2021, Stormont's leaders agreed to hold a public inquiry into mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and workhouses north of the border.

But two and a half years on, that inquiry is still to be legally established.

"Obviously with the collapse of Stormont, the legislation hasn't happened for them and many survivors and victims are no longer with us," Ms McKeegan said.

The solicitor is due to meet First Minister Michelle O'Neill about the issue next month and said the message from survivors will be: "It must be done and it must be done now."

Ms Buckley was a sound engineer and later discovered she shared a talent for music with her birth father

For Ms Buckley though, it was the Republic's secretive adoption system which she had to fight all her life.

As a teenager she suffered serious health issues and baffled doctors ran lots of tests because they could not access her family medical records.

"My mother told me that at one stage they thought it was leukaemia and that the doctors had been trying to ring the adoption agency just to try and get some history.

"They were like: 'This girl is really sick, we need to know.'

"And they were just met with closed doors."

Aged 43, Ms Buckley was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS), a condition she later found out runs in her birth family.

She believes she missed out on earlier diagnosis and treatment due to her lack of rights to birth information when she was a teenager.

A new Irish law came into force in 2022 which gave all adoptees rights to access their original birth certificate and family medical history, but adoptees complain of long delays with the new system.

How many survivors get compensation?

It has been estimated there are about 58,200 people still alive who spent time in the Republic's mother and baby homes and county homes (institutions which succeeded workhouses).

The Department of Children confirmed its redress scheme will "provide financial payments to an estimated 34,000 people".

But that means just over 40% of survivors - some 24,000 people - cannot apply because of the six-month rule.

Awarding payments and medical benefits to all surviving residents would have doubled the cost of the scheme.

"The exclusions are vast and it really is extremely unfair," said Dr Maeve O'Rourke.

The human rights lecturer recently helped design the framework for investigating homes in Northern Ireland.

Dr Maeve O'Rourke (centre) was part of an expert panel who recommended a public inquiry in NI

Dr O'Rourke argued the Republic's 2015-2021 mother and baby homes investigation was too narrowly focused and has resulted in a restricted redress scheme.

She said there should have been a wider investigation into adoption across all of society, including the role of adoption agencies, maternity hospitals, "forced family separations" and illegal birth registrations.

"Unfortunately, and perhaps to limit its ultimate financial liability, the Irish government insisted that it would be limited to mother and baby institutions and a sample of county homes," she added.

Ms Buckley took part in a 2021 public consultation in which survivors and interested parties gave views on the design of the redress scheme.

Most survivors stressed loss of the mother/child bond was the most important factor that required redress, not the time spent in homes.

Ms Buckley shared her own experience during the consultation but was shocked when she realised Marianvale residents would not be part of the settlement.

"I couldn't stop crying. We bared our souls at that thing, you know? We told them how this has affected us mentally," she said.

"For saving a few quid, we're just collateral damage."