Chris Page News Ireland correspondent
Experts have negotiated access to thousands of records from institutions for unmarried mothers in Northern Ireland.
The documents are being assessed by the Truth Recovery Independent Panel, which is the first stage of an investigation set up by the devolved government.
After the Panel finishes its work, it plans to preserve the records in a permanent archive – aimed at providing relatives and survivors with the opportunity to research their past in a single location, with appropriate support.
More than 10,000 women and girls passed through around a dozen “mother-and-baby” institutions between the 1920s and the 1990s.
In Northern Ireland, there were also three Magdalene Laundries – in effect, workhouses where women and girls were made to carry out demanding duties.
The institutions were mainly run by religious organisations.
The Panel will publish a report which will feed into a public inquiry.
The issues being examined include allegations of physical and mental abuse and forced adoptions.
The Panel has been working with the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) to gather and conserve documents.
Senior archivist Joy Carey explained that the first phase of PRONI’s work was an “archival survey” – to find out how many records may exist, where they were being stored, and what condition they were in.
The documents included entry ledgers, minute books, maternity notes and many others – some of them around a hundred years old.
In summer 2023, Joy began to approach the organisations to “sell them the benefits of having those records permanently preserved and digitised by PRONI”.
“My team went out and negotiated with the religious orders, the adoption agencies, all the various stakeholders and record data controllers,” she said.
“86% of the records which were surveyed have now been secured for use by the Truth Recovery Independent Panel.”
Over 5,500 records have been digitised.
“That equates to around 50,000 unique digital images – many of which consist of multiple personal details such as people’s names, dates of birth, mothers’ names, addresses, and the names of social workers who were involved.
“So it’s highly sensitive information that we’re entrusted to look after,” Ms Carey said.
A key part of the process was bringing representatives of organisations who owned the records into PRONI, to help them understand the archivists’ work.
“We showed them the expert care and professionalism we could provide, and the difference between our storage facilities and an office environment.”
Data-sharing arrangements are in place between the organisations and the Panel to address issues of confidentiality.
Additional files have been gathered on the mother-and-baby institutions in the Republic of Ireland, where mothers from Northern Ireland were also sent.
The team have also been working on records in relation to cemeteries, baptisms, hospitals and mortuaries.
“We’ve also identified over 18,000 official social care adoption files, and we’ve assessed the storage conditions of those,” Ms Carey said.
“Some improvements in the storage of those files are already in the offing with regards to the storage of those files.
“And we’ve been surveying records in courthouses to make sure they’re being preserved and stored adequately.”
There are plans for a permanent archive, made up of the records and the personal testimonies which are also being gathered by the Panel.
Dr Mark Farrell, who is the Panel’s expert member for archiving, explained: “It will essentially be a one-stop shop, a central location for all of the relevant records that relate to the truth recovery process.”
He said the panel wanted to resolve the difficulties which relatives and survivors have faced in trying to access records.
“People have questions like wanting to know where they were born, where they spent their childhood – who they are, effectively,” Dr Farrell said.
“We’ve heard from relatives and survivors’ groups about the need for consistency and clarity – that they have had problems such as getting different answers each time they go to access their records.
“It’s important to them that they know where to go, that they have one central place to go, and – very significantly – that they know they will have the necessary supports in doing that.”
He said the Panel was aware that in the past, people who accessed records could be “disappointed and re-traumatised” by a lack of information, and also by some of the terminology used in the documents.
“The language about birth mothers, for example, can be very offensive and upsetting.
“So there is a need for people to be supported through that whole process – to be prepared for it, and guided through it.”
The Panel is keen to stress that the needs of relatives and survivors are central to its approach.
Almost 300 people have come forward to provide personal testimony – including birth mothers, adopted children, and people whose work took them inside the institutions.
