AN IRISH woman has spoken of the devastation she felt when her new-born son was taken away from her by nuns.
Oonagh McAleer, from Co. Tyrone, was just 17 when she was sent to Marianvale Mother and Baby home in Newry, Co. Down in 1979.
Speaking of her time in the home, the 55-year-old said: “I was in the early stages of pregnancy and I was sent there initially by the priest and social services.
"I didn’t know where I was going. I really didn’t know what was going to happen to me," she said.
"I was so afraid. No one explained why things were happening or why we were being punished."
The Marianvale home, run by the Good Shepherd Sisters, opened in the 1950s and closed in the early 1980s.
Ms McAleer is now lobbying for an inquiry into the abuse she and others suffered.
Ms McAleer, the chairperson of the Birth Mothers and their Children for Justice NI group, told of her time in the Mother and Baby home as part of DetailData's investigation into the abuse suffered by both women and children in homes across Northern Ireland.
The investigation revealed the harsh treatment suffered by women and girls in the homes and allegations of removal and forced adoption of new-born babies against the wishes of their mothers.
It also uncovered the high infant mortality rates for babies in children’s homes adjacent to the Mother and Baby Home run by the Good Shepherd Sisters, on Belfast’s Ormeau Road.
While she was in the home, Ms McAleer's named was changed, and she says she was told never to talk about her family.
She also recalled how girls were forced to clean bathrooms and do laundry, even while heavily pregnant.
“Every day seemed like a year," she said. "Everything got stripped from you as punishment, because I got pregnant.”
Ms McAleer later gave birth to a baby boy in Daisy Hill Hospital by caesarean section, but it was three days before she was told the gender of her baby.
“I never seen him and I never held him and I never fed him.
"I never got to see his wee face when he was born."
Scroll down to watch Oonagh McAleer speak of her time in a Northern Irish Mother and Baby home
Oonagh McAleer never got to see her baby's face. (Picture: DetailData.tv)While Oonagh McAleer made contact with her son eight years ago, she says nothing will ever replace the years they lost.
She is now lobbying for an inquiry to be held by the Northern Irish Executive.
“The nuns and the Government did this to people and they have to take that into consideration and take a look at what they did years ago to girls like me," she said.
“I am calling out there to any woman who has been affected in any way by any of the institutions, mother and baby homes, to not be afraid and to come forward.
“We demand the truth be told now, at long last. We demand a public inquiry."
The Irish Government has established a commission of inquiry into alleged abuses at Mother and Baby Homes in the Republic of Ireland.
To date, the Northern Ireland Government has refused to set up a similar inquiry.
“There is an inquiry happening right now in the Republic of Ireland. Are we worth less to our Government? Does our suffering not count?" Ms McAleer said.
“We have been asking the Executive to set up an inquiry for years. And, for years, Ministers have brushed us aside.
"No more. We want truth and justice and we want it now.”
Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland programme director of Amnesty International, which is supporting calls for an inquiry, said: "Stormont has ignored victims’ calls for an inquiry for years. That cannot continue.
"After the June 29 talks deadline, either the Government in Stormont or at Westminster must deliver a human rights compliant investigation into the allegations of systemic human rights abuses at these institutions.”
Watch Oonagh McAleer's moving account below or to find out more click here
