IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter
While some people may warn against judging the past with the knowledge of the present, the Government’s initial probe into mother-and-baby homes shows stark questions were being asked about death rates at the homes 75 years ago.
Concerns were raised in and outside of the State in 1939 — with the quality of care even being raised by senior officials at the Department of Local Government and Public Health. Children born to unmarried mothers between 1923 and 1950 were four times more likely to die than those born to a married couple, according to studies of the Registrar General annual reports.
The interdepartmental report published earlier this week shows that in 1939, the inspector for boarded out children in the Department of Local Government and Public Health, Alice Litster asked why illegitimate children living in impoverishment seemed to be faring better than those in the care of religious orders.
“The chance of survival of an illegitimate infant born in the slums and placed with a foster-mother in the slums a few days after birth is greater than that of an infant born in one of our special homes for unmarried mothers… except the Manor House, Castlepollard, in which the infantile death rate is comparatively low,” Ms Litster said.
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