The Mother and Baby homes

"We have different stories,

different truths, but it all needs to be told."

REDRESS: Ireland's Institutions and Transitional Justice, edited by Katherine O’Donnell, Maeve O’Rourke, James M. Smith, Dublin P. 14

Learning Outcomes:

1.6 debate the usefulness and limitations of different types of primary and secondary sources of historical evidence, such as written, visual, aural, oral and tactile evidence; and appreciate the contribution of archaeology and new technology to historical enquiry
1.11 make connections and comparisons between people, issues and events in different places and historical eras
2.9 explain how the experience of women in Irish society changed during the twentieth century

NCCA Mother and Baby homes Screencast

This screencast for teachers includes:

a brief background to the development of the NCCA's Mother and Baby homes resources for Junior Cycle English, History and Civic, Social and Political Education (see below)

details about how the resources can support teachers in addressing this potentially sensitive and emotive topic

an overview of the content, format and key features of the resources.

* Some survivors prefer the term ‘Institution(s),’ but 'Home(s)' is commonly employed in public discourse. As a compromise, the use of the lower case ‘home(s)’ was agreed with the survivors who collaborated on the development of the NCCA curriculum resources.

Link to the NCCA Mother and Baby homes materials

Timeline Padlet: Explore how the experience of women in Irish society changed during the twentieth century

Catherine Corless
Historian
Discusses her research process into the Tuam Mother and Baby home.

Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley

Senior Lecturer in Galway University.

Teaches undergraduate modules on children and the state, gender in Irish history, twentieth-century Britain, British social movements and the family in modern Ireland.

Map Padlet: The locations of some Mother and Baby homes in Ireland

National Centre for Research and Remembrance

The National Centre for Research and Remembrance (NCRR) will stand as a site of conscience. It will be a national memorial to honour equally all those who were residents in Mother and Baby Homes, industrial schools, reformatories, Magdalene Laundries and related institutions.

Daniel MacSweeney
Director of the Authorised Intervention Tuam. Former ICRC Envoy on Missing Persons in the Caucasus from 2021-2023, the ICRC’s Head of Protection Operations from 2016-2021.

The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) is an independent office established under the Institutional Burials Act 2022. ODAIT’s objectives are to recover and forensically analyse, and to memorialise and bury with respect and dignity, human remains recovered from the site of the former Mother and Baby Institution in Tuam, Co. Galway.

Resource Padlet: Supports for teaching about the Mother and Baby homes