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The final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes should have acknowledged the “unspeakable suffering” of residents of the homes and made clear they “did nothing wrong and did not reserve the treatment they received”, the High Court has been told.
Philomena Lee, a former resident, contends it was “simply not good enough” for the Commission to blame the treatment of women in the homes on the moral beliefs of society at the time, her counsel Michael Lynn SC said.
Mr Justice Garrett Simons has begun hearing two lead cases - by Ms Lee, now aged in her 80s and living in England, and Mary Harney (72), from Co Galway - over the final report which both women claim does not accurately reflect their evidence to the commission.
Both say they are readily identifiable in the final report with the effect the commission was required, under the Commisisons of Investigation Act, to provide them with the draft report so they could make submissions on that, including concerning the treatment of their evidence.
Ms Lee was sent to the Seán Ross Abbey mother and baby home in Roscrea, Co Tipperary in 1952 after becoming pregnant at the age of 18. Her son was sent in 1955 to a US couple for adoption when he was aged three.
Ms Lee believes the commission should have provided a report that acknowledges the extent of the experience and “unspeakable suffering” of women in the homes, including not giving free and informed consent to the adoption of their children, counsel said.
The commission’s view that it was “impossible” to know whether women gave full, free and informed consent to adoption was at odds with evidence of Ms Lee that she was called to the office of a nun in the home, told her son was being adopted and to sign a form which was not read or explained to her, counsel outlined. She believed a man who was in the office at the time was a solicitor.
‘Incarcerated’
Ms Lee was also not told in advance when her then three-year-son was leaving the home until the day in question when a nun mentioned it to her and she ran upstairs and saw the boy in the back of a car leaving the home. The home had her contact details but those were not shared with her son despite his efforts to contact her via nuns and others, the court was told.
The commission’s finding that women were not “incarcerated” in the legal sense in the homes was also at odds with the evidence of Ms Lee having witnessed that some women who ran away were returned to the homes by the gardai, he said.
Ms Lee worked unpaid six days a week in the laundry of the Seán Ross Abbey home for almost four years in the 1950s, counsel said. While she accepted this work involved doing the abbey’s own laundry and not the laundry of other entities, her case was that her experience was at odds with the commission’s distinction between commercial and non-commercial work and its view such work was similar to the work women would be doing if in their own homes or on farms.
She had worked 8.30am to 4pm from Monday to Saturday, this was a form of “forced labour” and, had she had a chance to make representations to the commission on its draft report, she would have sought to impress that on the commission. The very demanding scheduled imposed on her was not really dealt with at all, he said.
Ms Lee’s life was subject of a book by Martin Sixsmith, entitled the Lost Child of Philomena Lee in 2009 which was made into a film, Philomena, in 2013, directed by Stephen Frears, the court heard. She considered that anonymity was imposed on her by the commission, Mr Lynn said.
Ms Harney, who is now in her 70s, was born in the Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork in 1949. She claims she is readily identifiable in the final report and was thus entitled to make submissions that the commission should not have omitted evidence she gave about abuse and neglect while boarded out between 1951 and 1954.
In opposing the cases, the State has said the commission was independent in how it carried out its investigation and, outside of appointing the commission, the State had no role or involvement in the investigation.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission will make submissions focussing on the rights of victims of historic abuse to access justice and an effective remedy.
The hearing is listed for two days.