The daughter of a woman from Cavan who gave birth to her in a mother and baby home has spoken of her bitter disappointment at the redress scheme for survivors. The redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby homes opens for applications today. The scheme will provide financial and health supports to those who spent at least six months in a home.
Clodagh Malone was born in St Patrick's Mother and Baby Home - the largest in the country - 54 years ago but, traced her mother to Cavan. Today, she is a member of the Coalition of Mother And Baby home Survivors. Since Clodagh only spent 10 weeks in St Patrick's she, her mother, and 24,000 other people are excluded from this latest attempt by the state to acknowledge the hurt of survivors.
Clodagh says the way it has been handled is wrong: "It was grotesque the way it's been done and the way we've been treated all our lives, " Clodagh told the Joe Finnegan Show, "And, it's not about the money: y'know €5000 wouldn't bury a lot of the survivors. It's about the acknowledgement of what was done to us; that we were taken from our mothers, that our names [were taken] like, I was re-named Clodagh Malone. My original name is McCabe, I'm originally from Cavan, my mother is from Cavan. It's just a very unfortunate day that she's not being acknowledged, I'm not being acknowledged."
