Eunan Duffy of Truth Recovery NI brought to light the disturbing fact that nearly 2,000 individual remains from both workhouses and mother and baby homes in Northern Ireland were utilised for teaching and research purposes at Queen’s University Belfast. This revelation was made to a Stormont commission, however, the fate of these remains following the examination is largely undetermined. “1,824 have effectively vanished”, stated Duffy.
An immediate probe into the matter, along with public enlightenment to increase awareness was urged by Duffy. Although Queen’s University Belfast was chalked to testify at the evidence session, they were unable to send any representatives, as informed by Paula Bradshaw, the committee chair and Alliance MLA.
In 2019, the Commission of Investigation of the Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland discovered that in excess of 950 children’s bodies, belonging to those who perished in these homes, were sent for dissection to UCD, Trinity and other prestigious medical schools, intended for anatomical study between the years 1920 to 1977.
By the 1832 Anatomy Act, unclaimed bodies from workhouses and psychiatric facilities could be legally used in medical school research. This became a familiar practice in both Ireland and the UK, continuing till the mid-1960s.
Following a 2021 investigation by Queen’s and Ulster University showing 13,500 women admitted to mother and baby homes and Magdalene laundries operated by the Catholic and Protestant churches between 1922 to 1990, an independent inquiry was authorised in Northern Ireland.
A Truth Recovery Independent Panel is in the works of being assembled, with preliminary efforts focussed on the design of the inquiry currently underway.
Furthermore, Duffy raised unresolved issues surrounding evidence suggesting that babies and children in the Northern mother and baby homes were subjected to drug and vaccine experiments without consent. Duffy provided information indicating 44 minors from an undisclosed Northern Irish children’s residential institution were part of a drug and vaccine trial in 1962.
In 2018, Mr Duffy, who was separated from his mother shortly after he was born and placed into the Marianvale mother and baby residence in Newry, reached out to the pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline to inquire if he was ever part of any trial while at the institution. He recalled that the response he received was that since the trials were not announced publicly, it was unlikely he was part of any, a response he termed as totally unacceptable.
Information from Toni Maguire, a forensic archaeologist and campaigner, also presented challenges faced when seeking access to historical records, especially from the Catholic church, and trying to locate the burial grounds of the deceased. Maguire called for the establishment of cross-border communication mechanisms among investigative committees, highlighting her optimism for the Northern inquiry. She pointed out that the historical collaboration between the church and state that was evident in the South was lacking in the North, hence, if the commission was granted enough power, they could locate existing records.
Lastly, Queen’s University released a statement noting their continued collaboration with all associates regarding the issue of body donations. The university emphasised that all dealings with human specimens, including acquisition, use, and disposal, had been conducted according to the legal regulations at the time. To improve the accessibility of historical data, it is committed to digitising records from 1927 to the present, expounded a university representative. This narrative was later updated to correct a mistake at 17.49, June 19th.