These Frequently Asked Questions are intended to help readers understand the content of the report. At the heart of this report are the experiences of victims-survivors and their families. Some of the content may be difficult or upsetting so readers are encouraged to seek support if needed.
What is this report about?
This report is the outcome of the Truth Recovery Independent Panel’s examination of Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene laundries and Workhouses and related pathways and practices. It details the experiences of girls, women and their children who were affected by these institutions and practices in Northern Ireland and acknowledges experiences that were too often ignored, dismissed or hidden.
It discusses the historical context within which these institutions operated, as well as the legal frameworks in place at the time, and identifies human rights issues experienced by individuals and their families.
The content of the report is based on the analysis of personal testimonies, historical records and wider research which has enabled us to better understand what happened, and the profound and lasting impact on people’s lives, identities and families.
Why has this report been published?
This report is the outcome of the work of the Truth Recovery Independent Panel (‘the Panel’). The Panel is the first stage of an integrated investigation and will be followed by a statutory public inquiry. It is part of a wider truth-recovery process and is intended to support recognition, understanding and accountability.
The report makes recommendations for future action, including areas for investigation by the public inquiry and recommendations to the NI Executive in relation to the inquiry. These include the identification of serious human rights issues, the addition of institutions for further investigation by the public inquiry (and for the purposes of redress), the identification of practical steps to improve access to records, and the development of a permanent independent archive.
Does the report contain upsetting language or distressing material?
Some historical records and testimonies include language that is offensive and hurtful today. Where this language appears, it is used only where necessary to reflect the historical record or the language used in a person’s own testimony. The report also refers to traumatic experiences, including abuse, violence, family separation and loss. Readers may wish to take breaks, read with support, or return to the material when they feel ready.
Who informed the report?
The report was informed first and foremost by the voices of victims-survivors, their relatives and others with experience of the institutions examined. Their willingness to speak about deeply personal and often painful experiences has made this work possible.
The Panel collected 238 individual testimonies which, along with 46 testimonies accessible from the Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University research report, Mother and Baby Homes and Magdalene Laundries in Northern Ireland, 1922–1990 (January 2021) formed the most comprehensive collection of lived-experience testimony in Northern Ireland connected to these institutions.
The report was also based on the analysis of over 5,500 archival and institutional records, many of which were not available for previous research.
Together, the testimony and archival records formed a significant body of evidence which assisted the Panel in coming to its conclusions.
Does the report make findings about every individual case?
No. The report identifies patterns, practices, and areas for further investigation from across the institutions and systems, but it does not address every individual case. For many victims-survivors and families, there may still be painful gaps and unanswered questions.
What are some of the main issues raised in the report?
The report highlights serious human rights issues requiring further investigation by the public inquiry and makes a series of recommendations to the NI Executive. These include:
stigma and discrimination;
the treatment of girls and women and their children in the institutions, including abuse, neglect and inadequate care;
Nine women shared testimony related to sexual abuse allegations against a member of staff (Sister Z) in one mother and baby institution;
family separation, including the need for further examination of the role of private nursing homes and private domestic homes;
deficiencies in the selection and inspection of foster homes, boarding out placements and adoptive homes;
lack of effective oversight, including regulation and inspection of institutions by the state;
lack of oversight of the institutions;
non-compliance with labour laws;
forced labour in Magdalene laundries with women working without pay;
pregnant girls and women required to carry out manifestly unsuitable physical labour in mother and baby institutions;
cross-border transfer of children;
allegations about the activities of a former social worker (Social Worker A) who was involved in adoptions;
ongoing issues relating to access to personal records.
What does the report say about deaths and burials?
The report examines the registration of births, deaths and burials linked to the institutions. Whilst the Panel did not find any evidence of unlawful burials, the report highlights issues of poor record keeping by some institutions and private cemeteries.
What does the report say about adoption and family separation?
The report discusses the circumstances in which many mothers were separated from their children and highlights concerns around the issue of consent and whether this was always fully informed and freely given. It also recognises the wider pressures many women and girls faced, including shame, stigma, fear, lack of support and a lack of real choice. The report also examines the lifelong impact of family separation. It recommends further investigation into the adoption system, including an examination of selected adoption files. The Panel had no right of access to these files.
Does the report address cross-border movement of children?
Yes. The report considers the movement of some children across the border, particularly in the context of adoption and transfer to baby institutions. It recommends that these practices be examined further by the public inquiry. Again, this examination will only be completed by access to adoption records that reveal whether or not cross-border adoptions complied with all legal requirements. Access to records of several institutions in the Republic of Ireland will also be necessary to ensure completeness of this particular inquiry.
What happens next?
The report makes recommendations to the forthcoming public inquiry, the Northern Ireland Executive and for future independent panels. These include recommendations relating to serious human rights issues requiring further investigation, the need to address barriers to access to records, and recommendations regarding the creation of a permanent archive to preserve records. Publication of the report is an important step, but it is not the end of the process.
The Panel has made 70 recommendations – how will you ensure these are taken forward?
The Panel has recommended the immediate appointment of the Chair of the Public Inquiry. While the Panel’s work is completed, when the Chair of the Public Inquiry is appointed, Panel members will be keen to meet with them to discuss the report and recommendations in detail. We raised our concerns with the TEO Committee in June 2026 and urged them, and, other MLAs, to work with victims-survivors to ensure the recommendations are implemented.
Will there be a public inquiry?
Yes, the draft legislation to establish the public inquiry and redress service recently completed its passage through the NI Assembly and should receive Royal Assent later this year. The public inquiry will commence as soon as possible thereafter.
The report makes a series of recommendations (28) to the public inquiry. These include that the Chair of the public inquiry should be appointed immediately, and that the testimony shared with the Panel should be accepted and considered by the public inquiry. In addition, recommendations about how that inquiry should operate have been made. Other recommendations in relation to areas for further investigation, including serious human rights issues, have also been made. The report makes clear that any future inquiry should adopt a trauma informed approach to ensure people are treated with dignity, care and respect.
How does the Panel’s work link to the Public Inquiry?
The Panel is the first stage of an integrated investigation into Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene Laundries, and Workhouses, and has carried out considerable groundwork in preparation for the forthcoming statutory Public Inquiry.
The Panel's investigation, including its final report, and the testimonies and archival records gathered, will offer a significant body of evidence to the public inquiry. The Panel hopes this will help expedite the work of the Inquiry. This should enable considerable financial saving across the lifetime of the Truth Recovery Process.
The Panel has made a number of recommendations to the Public Inquiry about the matters on which it might choose to focus its attention.
What does the report recommend on redress and support?
The report recommends the addition of two institutions to the list of institutions eligible for financial redress – Clogrennan mother and baby institution, Larne and Thorndale Industrial Home, Belfast. In addition, the Panel recommends that mothers and their children who experienced family separation in a Workhouse should also be included in redress. The Panel also encourages the Executive Office to take steps to start negotiations with the institutions regarding financial contributions to redress.
The Panel recommends that consideration be given to a statutory right to support services for victims-survivors and to a means of addressing the issue of non-payment of wages to women for daily manual work undertaken in the institutions. Consideration should also be given to non-financial redress, including acknowledgment and apology. For many victims-survivors and families, acknowledgment and practical support are both essential parts of justice.
What costs were associated with the work of the Panel?
The total budget for this work was £2 million.
What makes this report different from the ‘Mother and Baby Homes and Magdalene Laundries in Northern Ireland, 1922-1990’ produced in October 2021?
The Panel’s Terms of Reference were wider as it was tasked with examining mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries and Workhouses, as well as related pathways and practices. Its authorship drew upon a much wider range of expertise, including that of three Panel members who had been directly impacted by the institutions and their pathways and practices.
The Panel’s work and this report build on the earlier research. The Panel had access to a substantial body of new testimony (238) and to over 5,500 archival records, many of which had not been available for previous research.
The Panel carried out a comprehensive analysis of this material, alongside the legal and human rights framework in place throughout the period under examination. This has informed the Panel’s report and recommendations. The more extensive evidence base and in-depth analysis means that the Panel’s report is around three times larger than the 2021 report.
In addition to chapters relating to each of the institutions examined, the report contains a comprehensive chapter on serious human rights issues and a detailed chapter on the harms and impacts identified by the Panel through the analysis of testimony. There are also chapters on themes not included in the 2021 report, such as Clogrennan mother and baby institution, Private Nursing Homes, and Private Domestic Residences.
Can people affected by these institutions access records about themselves or their families?
The report identifies access to records as a significant, ongoing issue. For many people, records are central to understanding identity, family history and what happened to them or their relatives. The report makes recommendations to the NI Executive regarding urgent improvements required to make it easier for people to access their records. These include:
creation of a central digital index of all NI adoption and care records;
improvements to the storage and preservation of records held by health trusts and the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS);
the establishment of a straightforward procedure to apply for records and additional resources to process requests;
legislation to designate institutional records as public records;
and the removal of means tested legal aid for records requests.
Throughout its tenure, the Panel was consistently contacted by victims-survivors and their family members regarding difficulties in accessing personal records. The Panel undertook a significant piece of work to develop and publish detailed Access to Records Guidance, which is available on the Panel’s website at: www.independentpanel.truthrecoveryni.co.uk/access-records
This guidance will remain as part of the Panel’s legacy, and we hope that it will assist all those people starting out and those who continue in their search for records.
When will the permanent archive be set up?
The Panel has recommended that the NI Executive establishes an independent permanent archive to hold all records relating to historical institutions and the people who spent time in them. It should be set up within PRONI but managed and run by an independent Executive Council, which should include people affected by these issues as well as people with archival management skills and experience. The archive should collect and look after records from public and private bodies, keep adding new material such as testimonies, and make sure records are stored, organised and shared properly. The archive is expected to have an accessible public space, private areas where people can look at their own records with support if needed, spaces for exhibitions and events, and an online service so that as many people as possible can use it.
Legislation will be required to establish this archive so any final decision will need to be made by the NI Executive.
How is testimony presented in the report?
In Volumes 1-3, where testimony is quoted, testimony participants are referenced by either an anonymous code, e.g. 20250516BD, or by their name, dependent on whether they chose to remain anonymous or not.
In Volume 4, all testimony participants and institutions have been allocated an anonymous code e.g. BM001 or MBI 4.
All testimony participants have been advised of their personalised codes in advance of the report being published.
Why are two different testimony codes required?
As the chapters in Volume 4 are organised by theme rather than institution, it was not possible to invite the relevant institutions to respond to specific claims within the timeframe available. Some people are quoted in both an institutional chapter and in a thematic chapter and, if the same code was used in both, it would be possible to work out which institution was being referred to in the thematic chapter.
Therefore, it was necessary to use different codes to protect the rights of all involved.
Why do testimonies not appear in full in the report?
It would not have been possible to include all of the full testimonies given to the Panel within the report. The transcripts run into many thousands of pages. The Panel was keen to ensure that the voices of as many testimony participants as possible featured in its final report so that everyone could identify their individual experience.
When will the testimonies appear on the Independent Panel’s website
The Panel has recommended that responsibility for release of testimonies for public viewing on their website be assigned by TEO to the Chairperson of the public inquiry. This relates only to the testimonies of participants who have consented to this. The Panel is conscious that the Chairperson is likely to want these testimonies to be made available at a time when their publication does not interfere with the public inquiry’s work.
Why wasn’t the report published before the Inquiry (Mother and Baby Institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses) and Redress Scheme Bill?
The original timetable for the Integrated Truth Recovery Process, which was set out by the Truth Recovery Design Panel in 2021, envisaged that the Public Inquiry would begin its work before the end of the Panel’s tenure. This would have allowed for an overlap between the two bodies tasked with carrying out the integrated investigation. However, delays in the legislative process prevented this.
The Panel’s recommendations relating to the draft legislation were shared with the Executive Office during the public consultation on the proposals for the Bill and with the Executive Committee during its consultation on the draft legislation. The Panel made recommendations on important matters such as:
removing a posthumous date for redress
including Workhouses in the scheme
ensuring that the redress scheme is established in such a way that it is trauma informed
noting that the Public Inquiry should be able to investigate ‘new’ institutions and recommend their inclusion on the redress schedule.
These submissions are available on the website at: www.independentpanel.truthrecoveryni.co.uk/key-documents
Where can victims-survivors, relatives or other readers seek support?
Some readers may find this report distressing, especially those with personal or family experience of the institutions and their pathways and practices.
Support is available for those impacted by the institutions and their pathways and practices. The Victims and Survivors Service (VSS) work in partnership with WAVE Trauma Centre and Adopt NI to deliver a range of support and services regionally across NI. VSS will also ensure that victims living outside of NI have access to the support and services that they need.
For more information:
Call: 028 9031 1678
9am to 5pm Monday to Friday
Email: support@vssni.org
Website: www.victimsservice.org