The Legacy of Church-run Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland

HI Frank in Dublin, did you think of putting your name down on the contact register in the Adoption Authority in case your sister has made contact there? There are also really good contact groups in the USA that may be able to provide you with information. If you would like to check out further details about the research project or if you would consider talking to us about your experiences, please email me at valerie.obrien@ucd.ie Thanks

One of the reason that many of the Magdalene's, who came to the States, had successful lives is that here we have Freedoms, that the Roman Catholic Church has been largely unsuccessful in diminishing or taking away. When I visited Ireland 40 years ago, I saw how the Church dominated life in general, but what can one expect when the Church dominates the educational system? Many in my generation, successfully lived through our Catholic school experience, because we went on to secular colleges, and learned that life didn't need to be a repressive experience. Instead, we could have a rich spiritual life and a relationship with God, without needing to have a relationship with the Catholic Church and have Her in our bedrooms, telling us that we would go to hell, if we practiced any form of birth control, ate meat on Fridays, wore patent leather shoes, did anything to bring Scandal to the Church, etc...... ad nauseum. I imagine when victims of the Gulag Magdalene Laundries came to the States, it was like entering the promised land. Most of all, when they came to the States, they probably didn't need to live with the constant embarrassment and reminders of their time in the Laundries. Since people didn't know their past, they could be anyone that they wanted to be, and they could design a life without living in constant shame and the reminder of their sins or their mother's sins. Life in the States is good!

hi my mam had a baby girl when i was 6 i was lucky and kept but when my sister was born they where taken straight from the coombe to navan road and after 3months she was adopted to america though we had the same father they never married i'am 49 now. my mam would never talk about this time in her life, though i'd love to meet my sister the feelings in the artical above brings home my fears that maybe some things are best left if shes happy, My mam past away last nov and i always thought i'd look then, but just more confused now. frank dublin

Apparently, comments are not being accepted on this article, or at least not all, as mine from yesterday never appeared. But why should I be surprised? Heaven forfend an adopted person actually be permitted to speak the truth. And I still see the photo I mentioned belonging to Irish-US adopted adult Brian Lockier being used uncredited. Let's see if this one makes it through the censors!