Debate contribution: Clerical Child Abuse

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 27 January 2026.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

27 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Clerical Child Abuse

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5345097

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Members who tabled the motion for bringing it to the Floor and for supporting my amendment. I will expand upon it in my speech. It is important, in a general sense, that we have a process in place that recognises the deep hurt caused by clerical institutions towards people who they were supposed to be caring for. At least tens of thousands of women and children were directly failed by those institutions. Families were ripped apart, and children and young babies were neglected and, effectively, killed by those institutions through malnutrition and other acts of abuse and harm. I do not believe that they have truly atoned for their crimes. I support the motion, as I said, and hope that the amendment adds to and strengthens it. Families that have been in contact with me and others are asking that the First Minister and deputy First Minister publish the research reports that they have been sitting on. They feel that the process is taking far too long. The survivor stories, I am told, make for very hard reading: it is believed that they, in themselves, could force MLAs to act much more quickly and to support legislation coming through, if the reports are published. There is also concern about the First Minister and deputy First Minister having failed to meet victims since the reports were commissioned in July. Some people are asking whether the reports have been read at all. I note, as the proposer of the motion did, that a letter was sent out late last night. It is not for me to comment on that, except to say that I suppose that people have been bounced into action by the motion, so it may be a case of saying, "Fair play" to the proposer of the motion. People ask why things are taking so long. How long are victims and survivors supposed to wait to get proper justice? I want to focus many of my comments, at this stage, on Milltown cemetery and issues connected to it. That is not just because it is in my constituency; other Members have raised issues about it in the past. It is not just because people have come to me with huge concerns, which I will detail in a second, but because the cemetery provides a snapshot of the scale of the abuse that took place over many decades and of the outstanding issues for victims and survivors, which, I imagine, are replicated in other places. Some information has been aired publicly through media stories and representations by victims, survivors and others at Stormont Committees, but those need to be properly heard today, with other issues being added to them. It is clear that religious institutions, with the full support of the state, failed those mothers and babies, when they were alive. What is not focused on so much in the debate in general, however, is how they have also been failed in death. It has been documented that at places such as Milltown, Tuam cemetery in the South and other places —.

I thank the Member. I totally agree with that point. Going back to the point about Milltown, there is particular concern that there could be mass graves under landfill. Bodies have actually been moved around because of unmarked burials. Some documentation exists for burials, but there are unmarked burials as well. Burials took place at the Poor Ground from 1937 until the 1990s. Adults, children and thousands of infants are buried there. Once the Poor Ground had been filled with burials, Milltown was due to close it in, I think, May 1980. Various articles reported that that would happen because there was no space left to bury people. That did not happen, however. Some of the land was used, by the diocese of Down and Connor, for landfill. Money was taken from skip companies and construction companies, and receipts exist for that. It is not clear, however, when dumping took place on the land, what happened to the body parts. I call on the Executive Office to ensure that those documents are hunted down, analysed, protected and secured. The diocese has refused to bring back all the 37 acres. It purchased a fraction of it. Presumably it knows what is underneath it and does not want to be liable for it. Families that presented evidence about some of that to the Executive Office have requested that that land be tested to find the exact location of their relatives. Not everybody may want that, but some certainly do. I understand that records are available for at least 11,000 people who are buried on that land in the cemetery, most of whom were infants from Belfast hospitals, mother-and-baby homes, children's homes, workhouses, Catholic institutions and private addresses in some of the poorest communities.

I agree with the Member that time is running out and about the lack of speed, to put it mildly, from the Executive Office. I totally agree with that. As I said, there are 11,000 records available of babies and infants buried in the Milltown site. It is believed, however, that there are many, many more for whom records do not exist or are being destroyed. I do not know what is happening or what needs to be done to secure those records. Like, I am sure, most others in the House, I am concerned primarily about the victims and the families of people who need answers and justice. People in my constituency and beyond — many people from beyond West Belfast are buried in Milltown — may not know whether their loved one is buried in Milltown or, in some cases, who is buried beneath their loved one in the same grave. That is important, especially to people for whom religious burial is important, as it is to many across our society. Graves are still being sold now that could well contain the bodies of large numbers of infants. There is too much secrecy from the diocese and the Catholic Church around that. Records and documentation are extremely important, as the mover of the motion mentioned. The Executive Office needs to do everything possible to protect them. I am keen to hear from the junior Minister about what TEO is doing already to seek and protect those records to ensure not only that the true scale of abuse and neglect is charted and that people who are entitled to compensation get it but that those who seek information about loved ones — I appreciate that not everybody will, but some do — and what happened to them get that information. It should be readily available to them. There are women alive today who went through those institutions and had babies removed from them in all sorts of horrible circumstances. They deserve some semblance of truth and justice. They deserve answers as well. I have sent questions for written answer to the Health Minister seeking confirmation. It is my understanding that most hospitals across the North — certainly, in Belfast, at least — had grave plots in Milltown that were sold back to the diocese of Down and Connor in 1994. Organ theft took place. I understand that some organs have been returned, but the practice was pretty widespread. At the time, the British Government had an anatomy inspector who went round the homes and institutions to secure the bodies without any consent from family members. What documentation exists about that? That is obviously horrible and gruesome, but it is also serious stuff. What has the Health Minister sought out? What has TEO done about that? What communication have they had with the British Government? There is a willingness across the board to get a cross-departmental group to act on the recommendations. However, my fear about all things cross-departmental is that they move at a snail's pace. Victims need and deserve a public inquiry, an action plan and a multi-annual budget commitment. Time is of the essence. As I understand it, there may also be another issue — I am keen to hear the Minister's response to this — which is that, when people die and are buried in council cemeteries, the council registrar issues a funeral card and documentation that is kept in council archives, but the state, certainly historically, allowed the Catholic Church to have its own records. My understanding is that the paperwork that gives the authority to bury a body is called a "green form". Again, what work has TEO done to secure that paperwork? That needs to be focused on as well. We also need to have a conversation about and a focus on Church assets. Churches are wealthy organisations. Archbishop Eamon Martin has tried to claim that seizing Church assets is opportunism. You would think that he would have a bit more humility. That is nothing more than an attempt at deflection. Church and state have collective responsibility. If they did not act appropriately, which they did not, there need to be consequences. An immoral, legal scheme was created whereby women were incarcerated and abused for decades and tens of thousands of children died — were killed — or were taken from their mothers and trafficked across the world. That was completely disgusting and horrible, but it was legal.

I will. It was allowed by the state and those who ran institutions. To claim that we cannot design a system in which compensation is paid out fairly is simply untrue. I urge Members to back the amendment and the motion.

1,597 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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