"Redacted Lives," a new podcast from Irish news site The Journal, tells the stories of the women and children who lived in Ireland's Mother and Baby Homes.
"Redacted Lives" follows the stories of mothers who were forced into Ireland's Mother and Baby Homes because they became pregnant outside of marriage and the children who were born in the institutions.
Órla Ryan, a news correspondent with The Journal who has written extensively about Ireland's Mother and Baby Homes, created the "Redacted Lives" podcast alongside producer Nicky Ryan and executive producer Sinéad O'Carroll.
The new six-part podcast series gives the victims of Ireland's Mother and Baby Homes the opportunity to tell the real story of the institutions and how they continue to be denied access to information and proper redress by the Irish State.
The first episode - named Tracey 1735 - was released on November 10 and follows three women who lived in Mother and Baby Homes, two of which were forced into the institutions after falling pregnant and one of which was born in a mother and baby home.
Terri, Mary, and Maria are three of more than 100,000 people who ended up in Mother and Baby Homes in 20th-century Ireland and will explain the impact that their experience has had on the rest of their lives.
In episode 1, Tracey 1735, we meet three women who passed through the system – two as mothers and one as a child.
Terri, Maria and Mary explain how they ended up in institutions and the ongoing impact this has on their lives. pic.twitter.com/ZdvbTlLe15
— Órla Ryan (@orlaryan) November 10, 2022
Ireland is believed to have had the highest proportion of Mother and Baby Homes in the world.
More than 100,000 women and children were housed in Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland between 1922 and 1998, with children often adopted or sent to industrial schools without their mother's consent.
A Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation was ordered by the Irish Government in 2015 after Galway historian Catherine Corless revealed that there were 796 babies buried in a mass grave at the site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway.
The revelation caused international outrage, prompting the Irish Government to announce the Commission of Investigation.
The Commission delivered its long-awaited report in January 2021, stating that 9,000 babies had died in the homes between 1922 and 1998, more than twice the infant mortality rate among the general population at the same time.
The report also revealed that some children at the homes were subjected to medical experiments and vaccine trials without their mother's consent.
However, many Irish Mother and Baby Home survivors complained that their stories had been dismissed, omitted, or disregarded by the Commission of Investigation.
You can listen to The Journal's "Redacted Lives" podcast here.
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