There are fresh calls for clarity on how many children may have passed away in Kilrush mother and baby home.
It comes as the government is bringing forward a bill which would allow the remains of children who died at the homes to be exhumed.
If this bill, which is currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Children, comes to pass, it could allow exacavations to be carried out at sites where it’s believed the bodies of babies who died while in the care of the homes are.
The Committee has heard concerns that the recent Mother & Baby Homes Commission did not make any effort to establish how many children died in the Kilrush mother and baby home, which was operational between 1923 and 1932.
The report, released in January, stated as many as 168 ‘may’ have died at the West Clare facility, but this was based on the average death rate of what the report called ‘illegitimate’ children at the time.
Susan Lohan, Co-Founder of the Adoption Rights Alliance, says what happened to children in Kilrush at the time needs to be investigated more thoroughly.
Clare’s Fianna Fail TD, meanwhile, believes a DNA database should be assessed as a possibility to be able to reunite remains of those who died in mother and baby homes with their families.
In Britain, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has powers to exhume unidentified bodies, before undertaking a coroner’s assessment and a DNA test and reuniting them with family members.
Meelick-based Deputy Cathal Crowe has been telling the Committee that a similar model should be looked at in this instance in the context of the mother and baby homes.
