As many as 168 babies may have died may have died in County Clare’s only registered Mother and Baby Home between 1923 and 1932.
It’s among the findings contained in the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation, which has a chapter dedicated to the West Clare facility.
The Kilrush mother and baby home was run by the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy between 1922 and 1928, and by directly employed lay staff from then until its closure in 1932.
The home was publicly financed and as such was subject to Board of Health inspections – the report describes the physical condition of the home during these inspections as “always very poor”, with one local councillor at the time labeling it ‘an absolute disgrace’.
As far back as March 1922, when the home was recently opened, a nursery committee suggested mothers were ‘neglected’ and called strongly for conditions to be improved at the West Clare institution.
Admissions register records for the home are no longer in existence, but the report estimates between 300 and 400 mothers were at the home, with what’s described as ‘considerably’ more children.
Baptismal records estimate that 330 children were born in the nursery of the home.
The report states that the death rate of what it calls ‘illegitimate’ children in Clare was very high, and that it is ‘probable’ at least the majority of the 168 infants who died in this county in that time passed away in Kilrush.
Another indicator of the high mortaility rate was the home’s continuous requests for coffins.
The order for closure was made by the Minister for Local Government and Public Health in 1932, though objections were raised at the time on account of a potential ‘loss of business’ in the town.
The facility closed in March of that year, with a number of children from the centre being transferred to a similar facility in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary.
The Taoiseach will make a formal state apology to Mother and Baby Home survivors across the country in the Dáil later today.
9,000 died in the 18 institutions examined between the 1920s and 1990s.
In a statement this morning, the Bishop of Killaloe Bishop Fintan Monahan has said he “humbly” apologises to all who suffered.
He says sorry for the degradation caused, the suffering inflicted and for what he calls “the failure of the Church to demonstrate its commitment to the sacredness of human life.”
Last night, the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland also apologised “unreservedly” to survivors.
Archbishop Eamon Martin says he accepts the Church was clearly part of the culture where people were “frequently stigmatised, judged and rejected”.
