"Mother and Baby" Mums Should Be Compensated for "Slave Labour" Says Support Group

Westmeath Examiner
March 30, 2017

http://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/news/roundup/articles/2017/03/31/4137673-mother-and-baby-mums-should-be-compensated-for-slave-labour-says-support-group/

The thousands of women who were forced into "slave labour" in Castlepollard and other mother and babies home should be compensated by the religious orders who were paid by the state to take care of them, according to the chairman of the Coalition of Mother And Baby Home Survivors (CMABS).

The Irish Times reported last Wednesday that the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes has proposed a redress scheme for survivors who suffered abuse during their time in the facilities. The commission's final report will be released early next year.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, CMABS chairman Paul Redmond, who was born in the mother and baby home in Castlepollard, says that a redress scheme is long overdue.

"Natural mothers in places like Castlepollard were essentially unpaid slave labour and they were worked to the bone six days a week from early morning until the evening without a penny. The government was paying handsomely for their care and they should not have been doing any work at all. It really was putting their health and emotional wellbeing at risk.

"They should be more than compensated for the work for one thing, but also for the cruelty with which they were treated while the government were paying through the nose for proper care. They should be compensated for that and they should also be compensated for the fact that Castlepollard had no doctors and nurses employed, just one midwife at a time."

While every mother should be included in any scheme, according to Mr Redmond, he believes that for the thousands of children born in the homes, their claims should be looked at on a "case by case basis".

"On the one hand the very act of separating a baby from their natural mother is unnatural and unhealthy for both parties, emotionally and mentally, for the rest of their lives. At the same time the vast majority of us went to good homes. [However] some people born in Castlepollard went on to industrial schools and never got out of the system and had absolutely miserable lives."

Mr Redmond believes that any redress should be completely funded by the religious orders that ran the homes.

"The fact of the matter is the orders of nuns that ran the homes took money under false pretences, which is criminal. They took the money [from the state], pocketed the cash and neglected the girls. I personally feel that they should be made repay all of it. If you take money under false pretences that's essentially theft. They should be made pay that money back".