“They were considered less than human: no justice towards British-Irish adoptions yet

The British authorities saw unmarried Irish mothers as a burden on the public handbag, while the Catholic Church wanted to keep babies in their beliefs, reports Sarah Corker, correspondent of social affairs, reports

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Three generations of the Cahill family were deeply affected by what happened decades ago.

Fiona Cahill's mother Maria was born in a mother and a baby house of the Red Cross in London in 1954, but as a newborn, her unmarried mother Philomena, who was unmarried, was sent to one of the most notorious institutions in Ireland.

Philomena moved from Ireland to London to work as a teenager and later scored Maria's father. Like thousands of others, it was called “Pfi”.

In the 1950s and 60s, a pregnant, unmarried women from Ireland was reduced to an acronym of social workers in England – Pfi, which stood for “pregnant from Ireland”.

At that time, thousands of young women from Ireland had fled to avoid the brutal institutions there, but they found Great Britain an unwanted place and various forces that were conspiratorial to print Women to give up their babies.

The British authorities saw them as a burden on the public handbag, while the Catholic Church in Ireland wanted to keep babies in their faith.

The result was an organized repatriation program in which trips were organized and paid for by the state and the church.

Fiona, 50, who is an artist and supervisor, contacted ITV News after seeing our current Examination of historical forced adoption.

“The archbishops spoke about the rescue of Catholic souls, the rescue of the soul was more important than life,” she said. “They looked at it as if they were in the institution, they were less than human.”

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Fiona Cahill is committed to compensation for both Irish and British governments for the treatment of her mother and grandmother

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For decades, she has spent examining archives and files to put together the secrets of childhood her mother.

“There was an anti -Irish migrant rhetoric and the costs for the British taxpayer are something that occurs a lot in the archives,” she said.

“They justified it about the costs. It was a real culture of shame, secrecy and oppression.”

Belonged to Castlepollard Mother after two years And Baby house in the county of West Meath, Ireland, which had a child mortality rate at a time of 40%, was adopted by a woman who described her as “emotionally abusive”.

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Fiona remembers how her mother would have post -traumatic stress disorders (PTBS), which dates from her difficult early years and how this trauma was passed on to generations.

“She would have difficulty controlling her feelings,” she said. “It could be chaotic and difficult.

Maria, who lived in Doncaster and died at the age of 69 at the age of 69, only found that she was adopted when she was 21 when she applied for a pass.

It was only when she was 40 that she discovered that she was a British citizen after finding out that she had two birth certificates, a British and a “fake” Irish.

In the following decades, she unsuccessfully tried to follow her biological parents.

“Everything she ever wanted was a hug her mother,” said Fiona.

Since her mother's death, Fiona has believed that it has been her duty to carry out the campaign for justice and recognition. “It's like a dark corner that never disappears,” she added.

“One thing that cannot happen is that it is spotted and forgotten under the carpet, I could not expose this thought.”

Survivors are now fighting for both the compensation of Irish and British governments – from which they say they were involved in the “brutal” repatriation scheme from 1930 to the late 1970s.

In March, Labor MP Liam Conlon, the national chairman of Irish Society, presented the law of Philomena to support the 13,000 survivors of the mother and baby houses in Ireland in Great Britain.

In conversation with ITV News, Conlon said that he was “not consciously” forced to reject return scheme and described it as “terrible”.

“It is really shocking and a really not reported and unchecked aspect of this wider scandal,” he said.

“It is terrible that women who would have been very vulnerable here (to Great Britain), who would have come here in order to be deported, would often be very pregnant and built into these institutions.”

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“People want the truth in the files,” said Labor MP Liam Conlon, the national chairman of the Irish Society of the Labor Party, ITV News

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Fiona and her family are now calling for all archives from religious and state mother and baby institutions in Great Britain to be preserved and accessible.

She wants a special site to housing documents, objects and oral history so that this terrible period of history cannot be forgotten.

“There are many people who still assume that they have been” abandoned “and that they are completely not aware of the way in which unmarried women and children were treated,” added Fiona.

In 2021, the Irish Taoiseach apologized for a formal apology for historical forced adoption and the suffering caused.

This apology was “accompanied by a state campaign plan for survivors, which raised measures according to eight issues such as reparation, access to records and commemorative activities,” said a spokesman for the Irish government.

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In response to our investigation, the British government said: “This hideous practice should never have taken place, and our deepest sympathies are with all those affected.

“We take this problem extremely seriously and continue to deal with those affected to offer support.”

In 2016, the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales apologized for “the injuries caused by agencies that act on behalf of the Catholic Church”.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols realized that “grief and pain were caused by adoption by giving up a child”, and added that “the practices of all adoption agencies reflect social values ​​at that time”.

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If you are affected by the problems in this report, please visit the links to get help and support:

• Adult adoptier movement – offers links to resources that offer information and support for adopted in Great Britain

• Sorry for adoption – – Offers information about forced and compulsive adoption in Great Britain and all over the world

• Safe rooms – an independent service that offers the survivors of church abuse on 0300 303 1056 or on their website confidential support

• PAC UK – Fach therapy, advice, support, advice and training for all those affected by adoption and durability

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