Today is a really significant day in Ireland as the report into the Mother and Baby Homes is finally being published.

It was a cruel system which sought to punish and shame women and girls for the perceived 'sin' of pregnancy outside of 'wedlock'

A quick thread:

(📷 : PA)

The ‘homes’ were religious-run institutions supported by the state and wider society, which operated throughout much of the 20th century; effectively imprisoning and punishing women and girls for transgressing strict religious 'morals' by becoming unmarried mothers

They were a consequence of Ireland’s pathological obsession with sex, religious morality and women’s bodies.

When vulnerable women and girls needed support, we as a society decided to shut them away and punish them instead

The ‘homes’ operated in plain sight in Irish society throughout the last century and saw thousands of children ripped apart from their mothers and put up for adoption against their will, as well as being subjected to physical and emotional abuse

Survivors and their families have spoken of the immense long-lasting and ongoing trauma they’ve suffered.

Many children born into the homes still don’t know who their families are, decades on.

Many mothers still don’t know where their children are or what happened to them