Northern Ireland has passed legislation to establish an inquiry-and-redress scheme concerning mother and baby institutions, which were prevalent in the country from 1922 until 1995.
The bill was first introduced in June 2025 and completed its final stage on June 30 of this year.
The inquiry will investigate issues raised in the Truth Recovery Independent Report, which was also published this week.
Both the report and the bill focus on institutions that for over 60 years housed unmarried pregnant women who were sent to the homes by a variety of authorities — welfare, priests, family members — to have their babies. The children born there were typically adopted or sent to baby homes, while some returned home with their mothers.
Over 15,000 women and girls are estimated to have passed through mother and baby homes, as well as Magdalene laundries — institutions in both the north and south of Ireland operated by Catholic religious orders in which thousands of women and girls were confined and forced to perform unpaid hard labor. The last one closed in 1996.
The Truth Recovery Independent Panel report was commissioned to gather evidence in a nonconfrontational setting and includes the testimonies of over 300 survivors. Seventy recommendations were made, including the specific investigation of "Sister Z," a nun at the Good Shepherd Sisters-run Marianvale Mother and Baby Home in Newry, County Down, for sexual abuse.
The report highlights serious systemic failures of the state to exercise oversight in Magdalene laundries and other homes.
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill said: "Within their walls, women and girls were stripped of dignity, silenced, and shamed. Their children, now adults, are still living with that impact today, carrying unanswered questions and loss."
Conor Brogan, who was born at Marianvale and placed for adoption as an infant, told EWTN News that the bill and the public inquiry are incredibly significant because they were developed with survivors' input.
"It has survivors at the forefront, and that is something that victims and survivors have campaigned for for a long time," he said. "It is a massive step in the right direction to clearly understand where accountability lies and to ensure that those who are accountable are seen in the public eye as such."
He continued: "Girls and women who went into these institutions were publicly shamed. It was barbaric in terms of how they were treated. Institutions themselves didn't exist in a vacuum. Society was, in those days, very 'puritan,' and the whole facilitation of these institutions was by the broader society. There isn't a single case of a mother or baby being connected to one of these institutions without some form of government involvement. They all played a part in it."
Brogan's birth mother, Geraldine, now deceased, was a resident at Marianvale. He was born there in February 1969 and adopted several weeks later. He says of the redress scheme: "For my mother it's getting back to lifting the shame off her shoulders. In today's society, where shame doesn't exist, I think education and support for young girls who find themselves in this situation is the biggest legacy that could come out of it."
Brogan was reunited with Geraldine in his 30s, and he said they established a good relationship. "She had never talked to anybody about it — not her own sisters and brothers. Her children didn't know about it. Her spouse did. The trauma that was associated with that weighed heavily on her," he said.
Geraldine's time in the Good Shepherd home from November 1968 to April 1969 was too painful for her to ever talk about to Brogan. "That was very hard for her to even sort of go near it at all. She just couldn't; it was too painful, too raw, even after all those years, 35 to 40 years later, she couldn't. She just said it wasn't very nice and didn't want to elaborate. Meeting me and having me in her life went some way to, to sort of easing that trauma; I don't think it ever fully healed the wound."
Brogan always knew he was adopted and describes a happy childhood with his adoptive family. He told EWTN News that he, as a child, returned to visit the nuns in Marianvale with his adoptive parents. His brother and sister, also adopted, were born there too.
"There was the convent at the front, but there were other smaller outbuildings around the back, where, looking back now, I realize that's where the women and girls were quartered."
He recalled his dad putting money in the collection box there. "I have clear memories of that visit, but I had absolutely no understanding of the other side of it. The trauma of the birth mothers, knowing that you're giving up your baby as soon as it's born, of the baby being taken away, and then after that, I think, is the most impactful on people's lives."
Brogan also embarked on a different journey to make contact with his birth father's family. Unaware that he had a biological son who had been adopted, his biological father died in 1982.
Brogan said of both journeys: "You don't know where you're going to end up. You don't know if you're going to have an open door, a closed door, or visit a graveyard. When I found my father's family, the connection was fantastic. I did visit his grave, and that was quite tough. The realization that I would never meet my father."
"I have met every sort of combination a survivor has gone through," he said. "So, whether that's a birth mother never able to meet her child, or one who found their child, but the child, now an adult, didn't want to have a relationship, and vice versa. Where the mother has locked that away, doesn't want it disturbed, hasn't told her family, and really doesn't want to acknowledge that it happened."
He added: "I feel incredibly fortunate [that] I'm able to talk about it; I'm able to talk with others about it. And, you know, if my talking can help one other person, then it's worth it."
He explained that "everybody will automatically think, 'Oh, the Catholic Church is at fault again,' but there were more accounts of women from a Protestant background who went through institutions than from a Catholic background. I think that's important to state because the number of people who have come forward from the Protestant community is significantly less than the Catholic community. And I think there has to be some level of outreach to those people who feel that they can't come forward."
Brogan said that beginning this journey was difficult. "But for me to have a better understanding of who I am, and where I came from, it's very, very important. And to be able to spend some level of time with my birth mother, and get an understanding of her and what she went through and everything else was pretty priceless."
In a statement dated July 8 following the publication of the Truth Recovery Independent Report, the Good Shepherd Sisters said: "We respect the courage and strength of all who have come to share their experiences and have contributed to this research. We deeply regret the pain and hurt women in our care experienced, as outlined in their testimony to the panel."
The statement continued: "We also acknowledge the women who expressed their appreciation to the Sisters they met while in our care in the past, even when they reflect on a time of deep crisis in their lives. We will continue to fully cooperate with the impending work of the public inquiry."
