The Sexual Violence Centre in Cork say elderly women, including some nursing home residents, have made contact with them to tell their stories of the sexual abuse they suffered that resulted in their placements in Mother and Baby homes.

The organisation say they have seen a pattern over recent years where survivors of the institutions, including elderly women, make contact when the issue of Mother and Baby Homes is highlighted in the media.

The five-year investigation into the facilities was recently published and it found that most of the institutions under investigation did not have a policy of reporting underage pregnancies to Gardaí to investigate as statutory rape.

Mary Crilly of Sexual Violence Centre Cork says she was called out to Bessborough in the 80s to speak to mothers who had been raped, and she told RedFM News these mothers continue to contact the service for support.
"I remember being asked to go to Bessborough a number of times, to talk to the young women down there who had been raped.

"We would have been asked by the nuns to go down because they knew those young girls had been raped.

"They were caught in a horrific trap where the family had decided to keep them there.

"I remember over the years people from nursing homes ringing in, saying they wanted to see somebody - they didn't want counselling but they wanted to say 'this happened to me when I was 10 or 11', that kind of stuff.

"People will often say 'God, I didn't hear of this in my day'. You never heard of it in your day because it was covered up, and it did happen to the same extent.