{"id":604147,"date":"2026-08-25T12:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/604147\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T12:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T12:58:12","slug":"my-mother-was-trafficked-daughters-search-uncovers-family-link-to-bessboroughs-missing-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/604147\/","title":{"rendered":"My mother was &#8216;trafficked&#8217;: Daughter&#8217;s search uncovers family link to Bessborough&#8217;s missing children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mary Donovan knew she had a brother born in a Cork <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/mother-and-baby-homes_topic-5071097.html\">mother and baby institution<\/a>, but it was only six years after her mother\u2019s death before she learned she had twin siblings among the missing children of  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/spotlight\/arid-41887336.html\">Bessborough<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMargaret Mary Donovan, n\u00e9e Finn, was my mother. Everyone said she was the most beautiful woman in Tralee,\u201d says Mary Donovan, sitting in the kitchen of her cosy home in Tipperary. Beside her is a picture of her mother; they have the same vivid green eyes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cMy mom was born on July 27, 1939, and at the age of 16, in July 1955, she was sent from her home in Tralee, and she was committed, through a court order, to be detained in a reformatory school in Limerick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cShe was \u2018wayward\u2019. Those were the grounds of why she was put away the age of 16.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">That single day had a catastrophic impact on Margaret Mary Finn\u2019s life, and seven decades later its effects are still being felt.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIn April 1956 she was admitted into St Finan\u2019s mental asylum in Killarney, because she was pulling her hair out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Margaret Mary later left St Finan\u2019s, and, because she was under a court order, she was arrested and admitted to the Magdalene laundry in Limerick in October 1956.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThey noticed she was pregnant, and they brought her down to Bessborough in the late night of the February 4, 1957, and Davy was born at 4.10am, full term, eight and 10 ounces,\u201d says Mary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Margaret Mary refused to give up Davy for adoption, and her grandmother, Margaret, who had reared her, took Davy in too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mary has spent years trying to piece together the events of her mother\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">After Davy was born, Margaret Mary was committed. She left St Finan\u2019s in 1963 at the age of 20. She met Jimmy \u2018Rattler\u2019 Donovan, a skilled handballer, who had been put in the Pembroke Alms Industrial School in Tralee at the age of 12, after his mother died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Jimmy and Margaret Mary married four weeks after they met.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mary knew nothing about her brother Davy until she was 13 or 14.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cCaroline was born in \u201964, Ann Marie was born in \u201965. She died at nine weeks old of anaemia. James was born in \u201966, I was born in \u201968, Michael was born in \u201969, Martin was born in \u201970. Those were the Donovan children.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Chaotic home environment<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5204788_13_articleinlinemobile_DSC05364.jpeg\" alt=\"Mary Donovan holds a photo of her late mother Margaret who spent time at Bessborough. Picture Noel Sweeney\" title=\"Mary Donovan holds a photo of her late mother Margaret who spent time at Bessborough. Picture Noel Sweeney\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Mary Donovan holds a photo of her late mother Margaret who spent time at Bessborough. Picture Noel Sweeney<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Theirs was a chaotic home environment, and the family suffered extreme poverty. Jimmy became possessive, and violent, and Margaret Mary left him multiple times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In 1969, at the age of one, Mary was committed to the same industrial school her father had been sent to as a child.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe older girls minded us, and they potty-trained us, and when I was older, I had to mind babies at night and get up during the night and feed a baby,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">She remembers scrubbing floors, \u201cknee-deep in water\u201d, polishing them, repetitively cleaning. She now suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI was boarded out as a free nanny, housekeeper to the elite of the elite. I had to mind their children for nothing, and was put back into the institution afterward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI was subjected to sexual abuse and molestation for six years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u00a0Margaret Mary died in 2014, and it was only later that Mary gained access to her mother\u2019s medical and psychiatric files through freedom of information requests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cMom\u2019s records show she was in five psychiatric asylums, three Magdalene laundries, and Bessborough twice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            We didn\u2019t know mom was in a Magdalene laundry. That she had been in Bessborough a second time was a great shock to me.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI was devastated. I only discovered that in late 2020.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u00a0Twins Vincent Joseph and Ann Veronica were born at Bessborough on Tuesday, March 24, 1959. Ann Veronica died the next day, and Vincent Joseph the day after.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The Sacred Heart sisters who ran Bessborough gave Margaret Mary a \u2018house name\u2019 during both of her incarcerations in the Cork institution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe first thing the nuns took was her name,\u201d Mary says. \u201cThe first time, they told her she was Dorothea, the second time Eva.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cShe had the twins in March 1959, and from October 1959 up till March 22, 1963, she remained locked in St Finan\u2019s for four years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cShe was in St Brendan\u2019s in Grangegorman in 1959 as well. She was in St Stephen\u2019s Hospital in Glanmire, in St Patrick\u2019s psychiatric ward; she was in Our Lady\u2019s on the Lee Rd in Cork, the Good Shepherd Magdalene laundry in Sunday\u2019s Well, and she was in St Joseph\u2019s in Limerick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI do really think the word \u2018trafficked\u2019 describes what they did to my mother: she was trafficked from one institution to another to another, back and forth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Pregnancies and miscarriages<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/5204791_13_articleinlinemobile_DSC05345.jpeg\" alt=\"Copies of some of the original documentation pertaining to the time Mary Donovan\u2019s mother Margaret spent at bessborough. Picture: Noel Sweeney\" title=\"Copies of some of the original documentation pertaining to the time Mary Donovan\u2019s mother Margaret spent at bessborough. Picture: Noel Sweeney\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Copies of some of the original documentation pertaining to the time Mary Donovan\u2019s mother Margaret spent at bessborough. Picture: Noel Sweeney<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Margaret Mary\u2019s records say she had 13 pregnancies and multiple miscarriages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mary has birth certificates for 10 children, the three babies Margaret Mary had in Bessborough, the six she had with Jimmy, and a tenth, Finbarr, who was born in 1972.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI don\u2019t know where Finbarr is. He was born in September \u201972 while she was in a homeless hostel on the grounds of the Good Shepherd in Sunday\u2019s Well. Her maiden name is on his birth cert, Margaret Finn.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mary believes her mother never recovered from being institutionalised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            You might go in normal, but you\u2019ll never come out right, and I don\u2019t think she was ever right after that.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Margaret Mary was subjected to electroshock treatment (ECT) and multiple rounds of insulin shock treatment, a dangerous procedure in which psychiatric patients were repeatedly injected with large doses of insulin, causing daily comas over weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cA 16-year-old child, in her innocence, and the signatures on some of the consent forms in her files are not her signature.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cShe was locked away for four years, and rapes happened in these asylums.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI feel the psychiatric hospitals really need researching, I believe there\u2019s many women suffering in silence, afraid.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The damage has extended beyond Margaret Mary too. Apart from Finbarr, whose fate is unknown, all of Mary\u2019s siblings are dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cMy brother Martin, the youngest, suffered abuse in the industrial school and lived on the streets for 25 years. He did every county of Ireland, and he was found unresponsive on August 24, 2016, dead at 45.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cJames had an awful life too, he died last year; 45 years of solvent abuse finally caught up with him at 58. Caroline died in 2022 at 58. Davy died at 58.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt\u2019s been horrific. I don\u2019t know where I get my strength from. I think it\u2019s from my mom.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI know she\u2019s watching over me. I know they\u2019re all watching over me.\u201d Mary has had her troubles too, suffering a severe eating disorder and becoming anorexic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThat\u2019s where my mental health started to deteriorate, and more so when I had my son and my daughter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe how could a baby end up in an institution, and then I started to begin to understand how, because of what they did to my mother at 16. She was never right, she couldn\u2019t be our mom, and I made that promise I would be the best mom to both of my kids.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cMy marriage ended in 2000, and my father died in 2004. I saw him take his last breath. It was horrific.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cMom went into long-term care in 1995 in Kilarden House in Tralee after Finan\u2019s closed. In March 2009 she had to go into a nursing home because she got diagnosed with dementia.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Hunger strike<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Last winter, Mary was one of four survivors of industrial and reformatory schools who concluded a 51-day hunger strike outside Leinster House, having secured a Government-backed package of apology and supports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">The twins, Ann Veronica and Vincent Joseph, are among 859 children whose burial records are missing from Bessborough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In 2021, the  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/munster\/arid-40206032.html\">Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes reported 923 child deaths relating to Bessborough<\/a>, with burial records existing for only 64. It said it was \u201chighly likely some children were buried on the Bessborough estate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Last month, An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la cleared the way for the building of 106 apartments on the remaining 60 acres at Bessborough. Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin subsequently intervened, calling on Cork City Council to engage with the landowners.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Like so many survivors and relatives, Mary Donovan says she has been traumatised by the planning decision, and she believes the State must purchase the land.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cLet it become a memorial garden. Put out 923 white little crosses, and for the 19 mothers who are missing also.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cI would love to have a place where I could sit down and talk to Vincent and Ann,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThey were real people. One lived a day, and the other lived two days, but they left a mark on the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mary Donovan knew she had a brother born in a Cork mother and baby institution, but it was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17670,185249,79,61,1693,60,43],"class_list":["post-604147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-mother-and-baby-homes","tag-tipperary-news","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-insight","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}