Mother-and-baby group pulls out of forum meetings

The largest group campaigning on behalf of NI survivors of mother-and-baby homes is pulling out of meetings with the Executive's survivors' forum.

Birth Mothers and their Children emailed the secretary of state, the head of the NI Civil Service and a number of political representatives.

It said it had become "disenfranchised" with the lack of a statutory inquiry into the institutions.

Attending forum meetings had caused further upset to its members, it added.

The group expressed frustration about the lack of a redress scheme 18 months after a truth and recovery report was published.

"We have relentlessly campaigned from the outset for a statutory inquiry with full powers to call witnesses, and to force the institutions to release documents," the group said in its email.

"However, this has not yet occurred and we are still waiting for truth and justice."

At least 10,500 women passed through mother-and-baby homes and baby institutions in Northern Ireland.

That included more than 3,000 women who spent time in a Magdalene laundry.

These institutions were, in effect, workhouses and were situated in Londonderry, Belfast, and Newry.

Edel Johnston, of Birth Mothers and their Children, told Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme: "We've become increasingly disillusioned and disenfranchised with the prevarication and the delays that have been caused.

"The report was written in October 2021; it is now May 2023 and we are no further forward.

"What a cruel irony that the mechanism that was supposed to help us is causing more pain, more suffering.

"For a lot of our members redress is the only form of justice that they will ever have because they will never see a public inquiry with all these delays."

The group's solicitor, Claire McKeegan, said Birth Mothers and their Children had written to a number of MPs seeking support for legislation in Westminster in the absence of a sitting Northern Ireland Assembly.

"These things can't wait any longer," she said.

"It's 10 years since Edel's group began their campaign."

She added: "We would be appealing to officials to meet with these victims and survivors as soon as possible with a view to taking a draft bill through parliament."