Thread by @culchiewoman

1/ I’ve never, ever shown this photo but for the day that’s in it, the story needs to be told. Sit back and strap in. #MotherAndBabyHomes

2/ My late mum, Josie, was the last of four children born non-maritally in Wexford in 1933. Adoption didn’t exist then and her two older brothers were raised in-family, because they were boys and useful. A sister born before her died age 4 in the county home.

3/ Josie was packed off to St Dominic’s in Waterford where she spent roughly 4 years getting an “education.” She fondly remembered day trips to Tramore and only ever referred to this time as “when I was in school in Ireland.”

4/ At roughly 14, her mother (now in Manchester) apparently made “noises” about getting Josie back. So the nuns sent her to St Maries of the Isle in Cork, where she proved to be an extraordinarily talented seamstress.

5/ At roughly 15, the Mercy nuns sent her to Sunday’s Well Magdalene Laundry, where she sewed for f*cking Ireland and the Good Shepherds for 10 years.

6/ She was released from SW in 1957, because she minded her P’s & Q’s, to a job at Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin. She met my father at a dance in 1959, and nature (and starvation of affection) took its course.

7/ Pregnant and without any family support, she was shifted between St Pat’s Navan Rd, Dunboyne, and ultimately down to Cork in Feb 1960.

8/ She followed the rules (knowing her way around the nuns well), still seeing for her keep, with the Sacred Hearts at #Bessboro. She had me via c-section at St Finbarr’s on 8 Apr ‘60. We’re lucky the level of care had risen to that stage, or we’d both have died.

9/ She knew her fate, and mine. She made it clear she wanted me adopted to the US, lest I languish in Ireland and end up as she did.

10/ Fast forward to 2002, when we met and joyously reunited. I loved Josie and couldn’t help but admire her dignity and tenacity to overcome her background in the UK.

11/ And although she would talk openly about her time in #Bessboro, she could never open up about her time in Sunday’s Well or industrial school. It was her dark secret. I respected that, but desperately wanted her to apply to the #Magdalene scheme for her own sake.

12/ She had lost her husband in 2005 and was living in an ageing council house in Swindon. I knew we could do better for her. She was largely immobilised and needed a single-floor place. I’d planned to come over and care-give, given I’d lost my job in the US.

13/ But unfortunately, another Irish survivor, who’d ended up on the wrong side of his abuse and posing as an NHS caregiver, took advantage of her and left her, in Nov 2013, in a state of extreme neglect, abuse and ill health.

14/ She was found in extreme dehydration and hypothermia in late Nov 2013, and was (after much long-distance phone haggling with her and EMS), taken to hospital. She gradually began improving and was looking forward to me coming over 23 Dec.

15/ I arrived 24 Dec only to be informed she’d suffered a stroke. I sat with her until 26 Dec, playing Irish music on my phone and cuddling her, until she drew her last breath.

@rodericogorman: you and the Irish State owe both Josie and I so much more than your lip service. Think of that photo every night when you go to sleep. Illegal, forced, trafficked #Adoption cost us so much. I only got 12 years with her. Should’ve been more.

Sorry, correction: *14 years in St Dominic’s, Waterford.