In the wake of the Ryan and Murphy reports*, both released in 2009,
often the memories of the children, women and workers involved have
taken a sideline to the question of who is to blame for systemic abuse.
But while the Irish public attempts to heal from this broken past and
demand justice, more stories are on the verge of disappearance: those of
the unknown women and babies who lived in Church-run mother and baby
homes and of the American families who adopted these children from the
1940s until the early 70s.
I spoke with Dr. Valerie O’Brien, lecturer and researcher in Applied Social Science at University College Dublin, about her joint project with Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, founder and CEO of Center For Family Connections in Boston and lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, to reach out to those involved and record a history obscured by Church and State. By sharing these stories, O’Brien and Maguire Pavao see an opportunity to positively affect modern adoption practices in Ireland as well as bring dignity to the mothers who were forgotten by their community.
http://irishamerica.com/2010/08/the-legacy-of-church-run-mother-and-baby-homes-in-ireland/
I spoke with Dr. Valerie O’Brien, lecturer and researcher in Applied Social Science at University College Dublin, about her joint project with Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao, founder and CEO of Center For Family Connections in Boston and lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, to reach out to those involved and record a history obscured by Church and State. By sharing these stories, O’Brien and Maguire Pavao see an opportunity to positively affect modern adoption practices in Ireland as well as bring dignity to the mothers who were forgotten by their community.
http://irishamerica.com/2010/08/the-legacy-of-church-run-mother-and-baby-homes-in-ireland/