Jon McCourt, chairman of Survivors North West, said children were taken from the south and sent north to Derry “without any accountability”.
He explained: “Responsibility for that abuse rests not only with the religious institutions into whose ‘care’ these children were placed, but also with those who placed them in the ‘care’ to begin with — parish priests, lay religious organisations, social welfare officers and ultimately the Irish Government, whose duty it was to protect its citizens under the now-removed Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution.”
Mr McCourt said that from 1922 until the late 1960s, “hundreds of children” were sent to Derry mainly from Donegal, but also from Sligo.
Nazareth House in Bishop Street formally opened as a ‘home’ for the care of “old people and young children” on March 2, 1892, and “ceased to be a home for children in 1998”.
Termonbacca opened in November 1922 and closed in 1982.
The congregation reported that, between both homes, Nazareth House had received 2,347 children and Termonbacca had received 1,834, during their periods of operation.
Mr McCourt said: “What isn’t taken into account are the large number of what were referred to as ‘voluntary placements’ into the care of these institutions.
“The majority of these ‘placements’ were made on the recommendation of parish priests or on their advice, following intervention from other religious-affiliated non-statutory bodies, i.e. the Legion of Mary or the Society of St Vincent de Paul.
“Arbitrary decisions were made to remove some or all of the children, breaking up families that, in many cases, they deemed unsuitable, unworthy or undeserving of support.
“These are the ‘forgotten children’. It is almost impossible to put an exact figure on how many children were removed from families, homes and the state and sent across the border to Derry.”
In January 1957, Eddie McAteer, the nationalist MP at Stormont in correspondence to the Co Londonderry County Borough Welfare Committee, pointed out that of the 87 boys in Termonbacca, 21 (24%) were born outside of NI, while of the 157 girls in Nazareth House, 35 (22%) were born in the Republic.
The ‘Report of the Northern Ireland Welfare Council for 1956 to 1959’ states that “of the 84 children in voluntary homes, 63 of them were concentrated in two Roman Catholic homes in Londonderry”.
Mr McCourt said this casts “significant doubt” on figures supplied previously by the Congregation of the Sisters of Nazareth to the 2017 Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry Report.
“Even a low estimate would accrue that somewhere between five and six hundred children were sent to Derry in the relevant period,” he said.
“These were Irish citizens transported across the border with less paperwork than cattle or sheep.
“Many would have been removed from schools and medical records and no one asked, or dared to ask: ‘Where did they go?’”
Mr McCourt said that because they were placed in NI as children, they were excluded from giving evidence to the Ryan inquiry, as they were considered outside its remit.
He continued: “To all intents and purposes, the Irish Government, the relevant county councils and the Catholic Church appear to have escaped scrutiny and accountability for these ‘forgotten children’. Now is the time to make it right.”
In the Dail during the week, Donegal TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked Hildegarde Naughton, the Republic’s Minister for Education and Youth, if she was aware of the deep hurt felt by the ‘forgotten children’ and their families.
He asked if she and Taoiseach Micheál Martin will consider that, with confirmation that the survivors of abuse in industrial and reformatory schools will be offered a state apology.
Mr Mac Lochlainn cited hundreds of children taken from the Republic and placed in NI homes and institutions “who endured abuse”.
In response, Ms Naughton gave an assurance that she is “acutely conscious of the enormous trauma felt by survivors of abuse, as is the Government”.
She added: “While nothing that we do now can ever undo the hurt which has been caused, the Government is committed to recognising that hurt and providing appropriate supports to survivors.”
She referenced an apology in May 1999 by then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to victims of childhood abuse, prompted by the “appalling revelations of abuse and mistreatment in industrial schools, reformatories and other institutions”, saying that was “to all such victims”.
Ms Naughton also spoke of “a comprehensive response” by the state, including a range of initiatives such as the establishment of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme.
“In relation to children placed in homes and institutions in Northern Ireland, I would note that the Historical Institutional Abuse Redress Board was established to provide redress to those who were abused as children in relevant institutions,” she concluded.
The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland was contacted.