Former Mother and Baby Home Resident Sues over ‘physical and Emotional Abuse’

By Aodhan O Faolain
Independent
January 22, 2021

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/former-mother-and-baby-home-resident-sues-over-physical-and-emotional-abuse-40000097.html

A FORMER resident of a mother and baby home in Cork has initiated a High Court damages action against the State, the HSE and the order of Catholic nuns who ran the facility.

The action has been brought by Caroline Donovan who was a resident of Bessborough House in Cork on two occasions, once in the mid-1980s and also for a period during the early 1990s.

She says that while there she was subjected to physical and emotional abuse which it is claimed amounted to a breach of her constitutional rights.

The action is understood to be one of the first brought following the publication earlier this month of the final report by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.

Represented by solicitor Siobhan O'Neill, and barristers Frank Callanan SC and Conor Duff, Ms Donovan, who is aged in her 50s and is from Tralee, Co Kerry, intends to bring parties before the courts in a High Court personal injuries claim.

The proceedings will be formally lodged in the coming days.

The parties being sued include the Minister for Health, the HSE and Ireland and the Attorney General and the Congregation of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, which ran the mother and baby home for unmarried mothers.

Ms Donovan says that when she was in Bessborough she was forced to work at the facility, and was also made by the nuns to work for a family in Cork city without any pay and was subject to harsh and unsafe working practices.

Ms Donovan also says that a baby girl she gave birth to in the early 1980s was wrongfully adopted without her consent, and after undue influence was exerted on her.

She says that she became pregnant when she was just 15 years of age. She gave birth in a Cork hospital to a baby girl.

She says that her child was taken to Bessborough House and was, she claims, eventually unlawfully adopted without her permission.

The case is expected to come before the courts at a later date.