The Disappeared Babies of Ireland

  A Truth revealed, is slowing coming to light, the story of the tens of thousands of babies stolen at birth and sold abroad by the Irish Catholic Church. This illegal sale through Irish Catholic Adoptive Agencies was and is a scandal. Mothers to this day continue to search for their disappeared children. In the depravity that marked the period, young unwed mothers were enslaved or killed after giving birth and their babies were stolen and handed over to Irish Catholic Church Adoptive Agencies to raise. In continued crimes committed by the powerful Irish Catholic Church, it's impossible to imagine something more evil than this. The Irish Catholic Church falsifying names and births on birth certificates, and openly helping American families to adopt babies, stolen from their doomed unwed mothers, back in Ireland. Nobody in the Irish Catholic Church has been charged with kidnapping and falsifying official documents. Many unwed mothers, to this day carry two weights, called “Shame” and “Guilt”, and blamed themselves for the loss of their babies.  We here in Ireland need to deal and uncover the true crimes of the past, that more than 65,000 babies were stolen during the dictatorship of the Irish Catholic Church in Ireland alone, and to many experts that figure is much higher, the theft of babies was systematic in all Irish Mother and Baby Homes.

    We need the Irish Government to immediately thrown their support behind the effort to uncover the crimes of the past, the theft and illegal sale of Irish babies from over 200 Mother and Baby Homes and religious Orphanages in Ireland.  "We do not have time to keep waiting, for promises of Irish Government help, many mothers are getting older by the day, and dying off, emotionally mutilated by the lies of the Irish Catholic Church and never knowing what became of their stolen babies, sold to who and where”. Some babies, as many as 650, were murdered or died in transit, an unwed mother who had her baby stolen or murdered cannot ever live as before, her life is truly over.

   Ireland must not forget their past, some of the unwed mothers died in suspicious circumstances giving birth in the Irish Mother and Baby Homes. Their family were never informed, but the baby was removed immediately and sold on. Many more unwed mothers were told by the Nuns, that ran the Mother and Baby Homes that their babies died at birth, but in reality the baby was simply stolen. A few mothers many years later or even decades later, learnt, that the baby they had been told by the cruel Nuns, had died at birth, was a lie and in fact her baby did not died at birth, but was sold by the Nuns into America. 

    Many Irish babies that were adopted in America, learnt years later or realise that the family who raised them was a participant in the sale of illegal babies, and that their adoptive parents bought them, like slabs of beef from Irish Catholic Agencies, operating in both Ireland and the United States of America. Their true mothers are still alive somewhere in Ireland, to this day, the adoptees feel pain, anger, great sadness, and rage at the lies, the loss, and the church. Many adoptees on learning the truth of their background, take a DNA test, with many legally change their name, once their mother’s are found. Many want their passports and ID Cards with their true family name. 
    The waiting stolen babies were placed in a temporary Mother and Baby Home, or housed with a family who worked for the Irish Catholic Church, or Irish Catholic Agencies. Once in the temporary Mother and Baby Home, all the stolen babies went through special "quality selection" for a detailed examination, combined with psychological tests and medical examinations made by doctors friendly to the Irish Catholic Church, or the Irish Catholic Agencies. The doctors would note the child's "racial value" and would determine the baby’s body proportions, eye colour, hair colour, and any heath problems, such as tuberculosis or traveller characteristics of the Irish Travelling community, other characteristics to include identified birthmarks, many stolen babies were also rejected if the birthmark was too big. These medical exams carried out by Irish Doctors determined the fate of the baby, whether the baby would be sent to back or to another Mother and Baby Home or experience other consequences. For example, after forcibly taking a child away from their unwed mothers, all “medical exams" were performed in secret. 

   The Irish Catholic Church knew that the eye colour and the hair colour of the stolen baby was important and some stolen babies commanded more money, if say they had an accommodation of blond hair, blue eyes, or red hair and green eyes. Baby boys also commanded more premium than girls. Once the baby was selected, the baby was sent to special homes to await the sale and transfer of monies into the Irish Catholic Church coffers. In the meantime, the stolen baby’s name and birth was altered to new names and birthday, normally to the new adoptive parents name, and sometimes at the request of the new parents, the birthday would be altered too.The new parents who were adopting a Irish stolen baby would be informed that the mother had died at birth even if they were not. In some cases, the efforts were so successful that the children lived and died believing themselves to be the children of their new parents. Some very young children, aged between two and eight, were sent to special Irish homes, and fattened up so to speak, these illegitimate children were deemed more valuable, there, they would be observed for a period of time before finally been sold for higher sums of money. The Irish Catholic Church were masters in devising and forging new Irish names and new birth certificates to hide the stolen baby’s pasts. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs were willing enablers of the Irish Catholic Church, and were used to issue new passports for the stolen babies, on the instructions of the Irish Catholic Church. 

    Some new parents were informed that the baby’'s new birth certificates had been falsified, but were reassured by the Irish Catholic Church that there would never be a problem, as any and all documents had ben destroyed.  The thousands of stolen Irish babies sold into America were robbed of their Irish heritage, many were maltreated by their adoptive parents. Some adoptive parents demanded adoption certificates, such records were forged for them by the Irish Catholic Church. Adopting stolen Irish Babies was a huge business, involving hundreds of millions of Irish pounds that flowed freely into Irish Catholic Church coffers, on a daily basis. 

    Infants and Children were often heard every night crying, a sad lament throughout the entire nights. Babies from several months old, to the older children normally 5 or 6 years old who would cry out for their mothers, inconsolably pain, calling for their mothers. These older children’s job was to feed and keep quiet the infants, screaming away for their mothers. Always through tears, many of the older children could be heard begging with the dispassionate Nuns with a passionate expression of grief and sorrow, asking the passionless Nuns for food, for water, for a toilet, for a simple act of humility, Please Sister help me, I’m thirsty, I’m hungry, I’m tired, only to fall on deaf ears. Their simple pleas for mercy and help always fell on deaf ears.

    I could never as a seven year old child, ever describe the joy of the child when they saw their mothers, coming for a few minutes visit, normally the mother would sneak into the dormitory, it was heart wrenching, she would be seen picking up the child and breastfeeding the baby, by the cot with whatever nourishment she could offer, and the screaming of deranged Nuns with sticks beating them away and back to their end of the Convent. Also the new mother knew instinctively where her child was in the dormitory of a hundred baby cots, and without conscious thought picked her child up to hold to her breast, shower with kisses and hug. 

    Watching the new Mother with her child was love in motion, the baby would cry softly at the touch of its Mother caressing hands, an intimacy of pure joy and love.The child’s little hands embraced its Mother’s neck, gently pulling at her hair, the silent kisses of both of them, floats and echoes throughout their shared pain and sadness. From the child’s over excited heart, a murmur, a whisper, a deep sigh, flows out. The hungry child’s starving mouth, grasps the mother’s bare breast with both hands, the child’s bare head is wet from the flood of tears, falling like raindrops, each teardrop, a love shared, each tear a painful reminder of a Mother’s loss, each moment a memory, etched in a ripple of future memories, as the Mother is violently ripped away from her child, her world, her baby. 

  The Child soon, exhausted by Mother’s great sadness and tears, falls fitfully asleep, Mother disappears into howling pain, as she is dragged screaming from her baby’s cot.  At each cot, each Mother cries as she is pulled and beaten away by the cruel and despicable Nuns. A chorus of distressful pleads heard nightly from grieving mothers “Please Sister”, “Please Sister,” a few moments!, a few minutes!, just a moment in God’s name!, my baby!, my child!. “Please Sister,” look at its bare heart? its suffering eyes!!, its tears!!, “Please Sister”, grieving Mothers wail, convulsive gasps of sobs, pleading, “let me take care of my baby, Sister please?, my child!, my love!, other babies immediately begin to wail. But the harden hearts of the unscrupulous Nuns hardens, a knowing smile, lights their darkened faces, by morning many of the babies would be missing, stolen by the child snatchers, reprehensible Nuns, who would relish in telling grieving mothers that their baby died during the night, and is now in hell for eternity for the sins committed by you, you unwed whores!, your not mothers!, a spiteful Nun would spit out with venom. There would be no mystery of the babies disappearance, but instead kidnapped by the ruthless Irish Catholic Church and a collaborating Irish Government, handed over to wealthy families in America for illegal adoptions, domestic chores and a life of horrendous abuse. 
    Another lifetime of searching as future adults, lost, as they try to piece together their stolen pasts. The reprehensible Nuns would then erased the very existence of the stolen babies from their records once the baby was sold. The unwed mothers, physically exhausted and malnourished were devoured within the harsh Magdalene Laundry Gulags as life slaves to their new slave masters, the insufferable Nuns. Magdalene Laundry Gulags run by the Irish Catholic Church were an integral part of Catholic Ireland between the years 1926 to 1996. Magdalene Laundries were a "camp" where unwed women and their children were imprisoned for being born out of Catholic Church wedlock, such as been unmarried. The conditions in these Magdalene Laundries were very harsh, much rougher then any Irish Prison at the time. Women imprisoned in the Magdalene Laundry Gulags were often forced to work 14 to 18 hours a day, for no pay, and very little food, as well as been neglected and abused daily. The horrendous true stories of the notorious Magdalene Laundry Gulags are extremely disturbing and often heartbreaking.

    The stories of life in these Irish Magdalene Laundry Gulags and all the brutality within is unbelievable. It will never be understood how such atrocious acts could be acted upon other human beings, particularly by the Irish Catholic Church. The idea that these acts of cruelty were organised makes it that much more unbelievable. How could so many Religious People gather together, justify and make decisions on the mistreatment, rape, beatings, torture, the selling of stolen babies and even murder itself, of tens of thousands of vulnerable women and their children. How could a Nun, a Priest, a Religious Brother go home to their Convents, their Monasteries, their Religious Houses, and pray in their Churches, after a day at work at a Magdalene Laundry? an Industrial School, or an Orphanage. How could they not see that what they were doing was wrong, beyond wrong, simply evil. ! 
"The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones.”;- The tragedy of "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare
Owen Felix O’Neill