“I don’t think I have any pleasure in any part of my body, because my first and initial body thoughts were blackened by the fear of sin: and therefore I think of my body as a sort of vehicle for sin.”

Edna O’Brien.

The carefully crafted official report into The Mother and Baby Homes report was published in January 2021. The controversial contents sent shock waves throughout Ireland, north and south. Rightfully so. The homes were set up by religious orders, mainly the Catholic Church but also Protestant homes and four county homes not associated with religious institution. In the report over 500 women shared their experiences of what is was like living in these homes and how it felt to be forced to go into them and to give their babies up for adoptions.