Mother-and-baby homes: Nursing homes used for ‘secrecy’, panel finds

Trauma support workers are attending every performance.

The artistic director of Sole Purpose Productions, Patricia Byrne, explained: “They will be there to give help to anyone who will be impacted or might be feeling emotional about what they see.”

She said she hoped bringing stories which had been secret for so long onto a public stage would help to lessen stigma.

“The play is very much a call to people who may have been impacted by mother-and-baby institutions to come forward.”

Survivors have also put together an exhibition of original art and artefacts associated with the institutions in an exhibition, The Sunflower Project, which is currently on display at Linen Hall Library in Belfast.

The exhibits – such as a christening robe, toys, and letters – captures the sense of love, loss and loneliness which they experienced.

The issues are also highlighted in a film which is in cinemas this month.

Small Things Like These – based on the novel by Claire Keegan – focuses on a Magdalen Laundry in County Wexford the Republic of Ireland in the 1980s.

Cillian Murphy plays a character, Bill Furlong, who is troubled by what he notices happening at the institution.

Prof McCormick is appealing for people who lived close to the institutions in Northern Ireland to contact the Truth Recovery Panel.

“We’re interested in anybody who had any connection with these institutions.

“For example, there are neighbours who might have been aware of laundry going in and out.

“Clergy may have brought people to these institutions.

“There are also magistrates, GPs, social workers, probation workers, midwives in local hospitals, builders who worked at the institutions.

“Anybody with any understanding could help us to piece together these stories.”

She also said the panel was keen to hear from people from the Protestant community – because most women who had come forward were in institutions run by Catholic organisations.