Survivors of institutions for unwed mothers in Northern Ireland demanded that the families of all deceased victims should have the right to seek compensation.

The government in Belfast is currently discussing a Financial compensation arrangements and public inquiry, and plans to offer payments of £10,000.

But proposals to restrict the arrangement for the families of deceased victims have been described as “insulting” by some survivors.

More than 10,000 Pregnant women and girls went through the secret facilitieswhich were mostly run by religious orders from the 1920s to the 1990s.

A public inquiry will examine allegations of forced adoption, abuse and neglect, among others.

“The whole system was set up to prevent children from finding their mothers and mothers from finding their children,” said Mark McCollum.

His personal experiences gave rise to his desire to help other survivors of mother-child institutions get answers and accountability and to encourage them to participate in counseling.

Marie Arbuckle grew up in Northern Ireland but was sent to an institution in Dublin at the age of 17.

“We are getting older and the truth must come out,” she said.

“We were not allowed to build a relationship with our babies because we were told they were not ours – even though we were supposed to bathe and feed them every day.”

Mark McCollum described the proposals on how to claim posthumous compensation for mother-and-baby homes as “insulting”.

It is planned that women who have been in the institutions for a certain period, as well as children born there, will receive a “standardised” payment of £10,000.

In addition, there will be an individual compensation scheme in which each person will receive different amounts depending on the damage suffered.

However, the consultation shows that posthumous claims can only be made by the families of victims who died after November 2021.

This date was chosen because it was the day on which the Northern Ireland Assembly voted to establish such a scheme and was therefore the ‘date on which the deceased could potentially expect to receive compensation’.

Essentially, no one who died before that time knew about or expected the possibility of compensation.

Mark was born in Newry, Northern Ireland, where his biological mother, Kathleen McGuire, was sent to Marianvale Mother and Baby Home.

Kathleen was one of the women and girls who spent their time in the so-called Magdalene laundries and had to do unpaid work, such as washing clothes.

Mark explained: “She was a little girl from Derry who did nothing wrong.

“She became pregnant and was sent away as punishment for the mortal sin she had committed.”

Mark was adopted from a nursery in County Donegal in the Republic.

Until the 1990s there were checkpoints at the land border.

“Babies were brought across the border at a time when you weren’t allowed to take shoes or butter across the border,” Mark said.

“It wasn’t just nuns and priests who knew what was going on. Social workers, caregivers and nurses were also complicit in what happened to the girls.”

Mark and Marie have spoken out to encourage as many people as possible with knowledge of the institutions to participate in the consultation.

They welcome this in principle, but both have concerns that the posthumous payments will only be made for victims who died after November 2021.

“This would exclude the vast majority of affected birth mothers and adopted children because they have died in the meantime,” said Mark.

Marie agreed with Mark’s argument that the date for posthumous applications should be the creation of Northern Ireland in 1922.

She said: “The trauma of the mothers began when the first mother and child home was opened.

“The babies were in the mother’s body, that’s where their trauma began.

“Some of the mothers were raped or were victims of incest. Nothing was ever done about it.”

The investigation and remedial process is the responsibility of the Executive Office in the devolved power-sharing government, which reports to the First Minister and his deputies.

In a statement, the ministry said the consultation “covers important issues around recognition, rights and data protection and it is important that we hear the views of as many people as possible to better inform future decisions.”

“We will listen carefully to the views of all victims, survivors and their families and recognise that there may not be a unanimous view.”

The consultation runs until 19 September, after which ministers will present draft legislation.

Another aspect of the investigation is already underway.

An independent body collects testimonies from survivors and others – confidentially if requested.

The information will be included in the public investigation process, in which institutions and government agencies will be questioned.

Mark and Marie, members of the Truth Recovery NI support group, want to reassure people who are hesitant to talk about such sensitive topics.

Marie said: “We know that not everyone wants to go public.

“You don’t have to – you can also fill out the consultation questionnaire anonymously.”

Shortly before his 40th birthday, Marie finally contacted her son in Dublin.

“He lived in my hometown,” she said.

“It could well have been that my children would have met him at some point.

“This is another law we want to change: when a child is adopted, he or she must know at a certain age whether he or she has siblings.”

Mark found out who his birth mother was a few years ago.

Sadly, Kathleen McGuire died two decades ago.

“I also found out that she tried to contact me,” he said.

“My birth certificate said my original name was Paul Anthony McGuire. So she had searched under that name and couldn’t find me.”

Marie spoke of the “shame and stigma” that still existed; Mark said “significant trauma” had left lasting scars.

They have retained the hope that the shocking truths of the past will be acknowledged and appropriate action taken.