Call for the State recognition of the Magdalene 'Invisible Dead'

As Frank was working on and finishing off his forthcoming book, ‘A Magdalene Rose’, he has spent the last few years listening, speaking and working with the victims and survivors and their activist friends, to bring Justice to those wronged by a State and Religious regime. 

During this period, Frank became aware of the continuing injustices delivered to countless surviving Magdalene victims because of the failure of successive Redress schemes to provide for a universal justice. 

Such exclusion is demonstrated from excluding former Institutions from the list of eligible bodies, individuals being time-excluded/limited from applying for Redress; children exclusions due to time spent in an Institution or being subject to adoption or illegal adoption; to those children who were boarded-out (fostered)(many of whom suffered with all forms of abuse which the State currently fails to recognise – equally unrecognised are those who suffered racial abuse, traveller abuse and those victims of non-consenting pharmaceutical trials – this list is not intended to be exhaustive). 

As part of his investigations, he came to realise that even greater numbers were excluded from all forms of Redress, simply because those victims had died before a State Apology which preceded the delivery of a Redress scheme. 

The families of those pre-deceased, inherited that exclusion, meaning that the only connection or Redress was a State Apology which by nature is primarily directed at the living victims and survivors. He concluded that as it presently stands, families have to be content with a State Apology. 

Families have to live with the fact that their pre-deceased family members remain unknown by a Nation and their experiences are not heard. 

For all intents and purposes, they are the ‘Invisible Dead’. 

Frank and his family are just one of the many who are effected by this State exclusion. 

In their case, they discovered a Grandmother who was incarcerated for over 42 years. 

Without any legal due process, she travelled through Ireland’s Institutions, and after a relatively short period, she was separated from her child. In 1972 she died in a notorious Institution and due to the debts of the Order, she was subsequently exhumed, cremated and reinterred along with 154 other women. Her story and indeed of the other 154 women reveals how Ireland does not know their names nor of their experiences. They are invisible. 

This is just a small snapshot of the extent of Ireland’s forgotten history. 

At the beginning of 2024, Frank drafted his: ‘The Institutions (Pre-deceased persons – Amendment) Bill 2024’. In early 2024, Frank visited the Oireachtas (the Irish Parliament) and met some of its members to promote the background to his Bill and how Ireland can rectify this injustice. 

The Bill provides a simple yet effective solution:

• Frank’s draft Bill (legislation) is passed to amend past and present Redress schemes to include a provision for an ‘in memoriam’ payment to be made in the names of the pre-deceased;
• The ‘in memoriam’ payment upon successful application by a family member or a personal representative, would be paid directly to a registered charity, chosen by the family or personal representative and made in the name of the deceased by the State;
• The sum set in the draft Bill for such a payment, is €25,000;
• Frank considers that it is the ultimate expression and indeed represents a profound act, through the memory of a deceased victim, paying forward a benefit, for the benefit of others;
• The Bill then provides for family members/personal representative to receive a copy of the relevant State Apology/Apologies, signed by both the sitting Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and the President of Ireland;
• Frank has modelled the scheme to run for 25 years (this accounts for new generations discovering their Irish History) and it is estimated that it is likely to initially cost €1.8m per annum with a diminishing affect upon the public purse over the scheme’s term (in the final year he has projected that the scheme would pay out €275,000) (this will obviously depend on the number of applications but it has been  modelled it on realistic anticipatory levels).

Recently Frank has worked to gather greater support for his Bill from within the Oireachtas, by writing to 97 of its members in the Dáil (TD’s (MP’s) Chamber and the Seanad (Senate).

Frank understands that his proposals are set to be discussed within the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (date currently not unknown).

In order to promote the provisions of his Bill, Frank is inviting people to join with Frank and to message this Joint Committee to offer their support to his draft Bill. You can do so by writing to the Joint Committee at this e mail address: cdei@oireachtas.ie

You can draft your own message, alternatively, you could send the following message:

"Dear Committee Members

I am writing to you because I understand that members of the Committee will be discussing a proposed draft Bill – The Institutions (Pre-deceased persons – Amendment) Bill 2024) – created by Frank Brehany.

I have read Frank’s rationale for his draft and I support the intentions behind his draft.

It is very important that we remember all those who were detained within the Magdalene system but died before a State Apology and how they and their families are prevented from applying to any Redress scheme. They are in effect the ‘Invisible Dead’; the Nation does not know their names nor of their experiences.

I think that it is vital that this is changed and I can see that this simple Bill provides a straight-forward solution.

I therefore support Frank’s Bill and would urge that you do everything you can to support this draft Bill. 

Yours Sincerely”

Thank you for your support. If you receive a response from the Committee or any member of the Committee, could you let Frank know by e mailing him via info@frankbrehany.com?