PRINCIPAL AUTHORS: DR MAEVE O'ROURKE, CLAIRE MCGETTRICK, ROD BAKER AND RAYMOND HILL WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM: PROF JAMES M SMITH, COLIN SMITH BL, SUSAN LOHAN, ASSOC PROF KATHERINE O’DONNELL AND TARA CASEY SUBMITTED TO THE COMMISSION OF INVESTIGATION ON MOTHER AND BABY HOMES AND CERTAIN RELATED MATTERS ON 8 OCTOBER 2018 WWW.CLANNPROJECT.ORG Cite as follows: Maeve O'Rourke, Claire McGettrick, Rod Baker, Raymond Hill et al., CLANN: Ireland's Unmarried Mothers and their Children: Gathering the Data: Principal Submission to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. Dublin: Justice For Magdalenes Research, Adoption Rights Alliance, Hogan Lovells, 15 October 2018. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE A. FOREWORD 1 B. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 3 C. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 7 D. GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND LANGUAGE 12 1. SECTION 1: TREATMENT OF MOTHERS AND CHILDREN IN THE PAST 14 2. SECTION 2: TREATMENT OF ADOPTED PEOPLE AS CHILDREN 65 3. SECTION 3: TREATMENT OF MOTHERS, ADOPTED PEOPLE AND FAMILY MEMBERS IN THE 85 PRESENT: DENIAL OF ACCESS TO INFORMATION 4. SECTION 4: CONSTITUTIONAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS 106 5. SECTION 5: THE COMMISSION OF INVESTIGATION, ITS PROCESSES AND OPERATION 129 6. SECTION 6: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE PROCESS 135 7. SECTION 7: ADDENDUM – FURTHER WITNESS EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE SUBMISSIONS 148 IN SECTIONS 1 – 3 APPENDIX 1: WITNESS STATEMENTS AND EXHIBITS APPENDIX 2: DOCUMENTS APPENDIX 3: PRESS ARTICLES A. FOREWORD The Clann Project is a joint voluntary initiative by Adoption Rights Alliance ("ARA") and Justice for Magdalenes Research ("JFMR") in association with global law firm Hogan Lovells. The purpose of the Clann Project is to help establish the truth of what happened to unmarried mothers and their children during the 20th century, from the foundation of the Irish State in 1922 onwards. It is doing this by: Assisting individuals whose lives were affected by the systematic institutionalisation and separation of unmarried mothers and their children between 1922 and 1998 to give evidence, in the form of witness statements, to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and Certain Related Matters so that they can inform that process and its findings; Creating an archive of statements and documentation and preserving that archive for future generations; Making a submission to the Commission of Investigation based on the statements and other evidence gathered, which identifies the factual findings and recommendations that we believe the Commission should make to the Irish Government; and Making submissions to the Irish Government and human rights bodies regarding the Irish State’s obligations towards those whose lives were affected by the systematic institutionalisation and separation of unmarried mothers and their children between 1922 and 1998. These submissions mark the first milestone in the Clann Project’s overall aim to help establish the truth of Ireland’s treatment of unmarried mothers and their children. The volume and range of statements made available to the Clann Project by witnesses is unprecedented, and the assistance provided by Hogan Lovells has enabled ARA and JFMR to work on a scale that has been hitherto impossible. Irish adopted people and natural mothers are at a disadvantage in the telling of their experiences because Ireland’s closed, secret adoption system has denied them access to the language, individual records and administrative archives required to document and articulate their history. The witnesses who have shared their statements with the Clann Project have made an invaluable contribution to our collective understanding of adoption, “illegitimacy”, institutionalisation and related issues in Ireland. The Clann Project builds on a previous initiative by Justice for Magdalenes (predecessor of JFMR), which facilitated 22 survivors, family members and other witnesses in submitting testimony to the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries (“the McAleese Committee”). In August 2012, Justice for Magdalenes made its principal submission, 1 State Involvement with the Magdalene Laundries to the Inter-Departmental Committee to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalen Laundries. The submission consisted of a 145-page document which was supported by 795 pages of survivor testimony and 3,707 pages of archival evidence and legislative documentation. It provided comprehensive evidence of State complicity in the abuses experienced by girls and women in Ireland’s Magdalene Laundries. In Appendix 2, we include a copy of these Principal Submissions and an Index2 to the archival evidence submitted to the IDC, a digitised and anonymised version of which is available here. The work of Clann Project continues in gathering further statements and archival evidence, and in carrying out further analysis. In the coming months we will also turn towards the creation of the Clann Archive, by publishing these submissions (removing any details which may identify witnesses) along with further legal argument and a wide range of archival and other resources via the project’s website, including data on infant mortality. 1 JFM Principal Submission: State Involvement in the Magdalene Laundries. Appendix 2: Tab 33 2 Bundle Index to JFM Principal Submission. Appendix 2: Tab 25 2 Processes of the Clann Project The Clann Project has operated under strict ethical protocols 3 and has provided full details of its operation to its participants via its website (www.clannproject.org) and its Information and Consent Forms (also available on the website). The Clann Project has also made its correspondence with the Commission of Investigation available on its website. Individuals who have participated in the Clann Project by providing statements have all consented to the use and referencing of their statements in these submissions. All statements have been prepared by lawyers at Hogan Lovells, the international law firm which has been assisting the Clann Project on a pro bono basis. Copies of all completed statements are at Appendix 1 to this document. The majority of these statements have already been provided to the Commission and they are all produced in un-redacted format on the express understanding that the Commission will keep confidential the identity of their makers. The statements compiled by the Clann Project are corroborated by documents and archival materials referred to in these submissions. All references to the statements have been anonymised and all witness names have been replaced by witness numbers. The Commission will easily be able to cross refer those witness numbers to the statements, and identify named individuals who have been redacted in the report, but this will not be possible for anyone else because it is only the Commission that will receive the un-redacted statements. The Clann Project intends to publish its submissions to the public but any such publication will not include publication of the statements. In due course, witnesses will be given the opportunity to consent to the inclusion of their anonymised statements in a public archive on the Clann Project website. This initiative is part of Clann’s ongoing commitment to making resources available to those affected by Ireland’s treatment of unmarried mothers and their children, as well as our aim to cultivate a culture of transparency and access to information. 3 Available at: http://clannproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Clann-Ethical-Protocols.pdf 3 B. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In June 2015, ARA and JFMR first met with Yasmin Waljee and her colleagues at Hogan Lovells in London, when the firm generously agreed to work with us on a pro bono basis. Over the following year, ARA, JFMR and Rod Baker from Hogan Lovells worked together to develop the Clann Project’s policies and procedures, and in June 2016, the project launched to the general public. Thus far, over 50 lawyers and staff at Hogan Lovells have given freely of their time to speak to 164 witnesses which in turn led to the completion of over 70 statements. As voluntary, unfunded groups, ARA and JFMR would never have been able to work on this scale and thus we are profoundly grateful to Hogan Lovells for the work they have done on the Clann Project. In late-2017, the US offices of Hogan Lovells also offered pro bono assistance to the Clann Project, as part of our outreach to Irish people sent to the US for adoption as infants. The Clann Project witnesses who have spoken to ARA and JFMR members say that the compassion, patience and care shown by Hogan Lovells’ lawyers have been second to none. In many cases, Clann Project witnesses were recounting extremely traumatic experiences, and we are very grateful to the team at Hogan Lovells for the empathy and sensitivity they have shown to interviewees. We are also grateful to the trainee solicitors at Hogan Lovells who were so diligent and kind in responding to emails from people interested in participating in the project. It has been our great pleasure to work with Rod Baker, who, together with Faye Jarvis, led the Hogan Lovells team on the Clann Project. Rod (and indeed all of the lawyers at Hogan Lovells) came to this issue with little knowledge of what had happened to Ireland’s unmarried mothers and their children, and we were in awe of his ability to get to grips with the subject so quickly and so compassionately. Time and again over the past three years, Rod went above and beyond the call of duty, and it has been an honour to work with him. To Rod, Faye and Yasmin and all the team at Hogan Lovells, thank you sincerely from all of us in Adoption Rights Alliance and Justice for Magdalenes Research. The Clann Project would also like to acknowledge and thank the following for their invaluable contribution to these submissions: We are profoundly grateful to the witnesses who have shared their statements with the Clann Project.