Ms Carole Brennan:

I thank the joint committee for this opportunity to appear before it to discuss the experience of our members while in the care of State institutions and detail any inequality in treatment they received on the basis of race. Who are we? We are a campaign group called Mixed Race Irish, MRI, which wishes to raise awareness of the experience of mixed race Irish children who were in the Irish institutional care system during the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. In most cases, the heritage of these children was that they had an African father and an Irish mother. We wish to highlight the racism experienced by these children while under the care of the State and the damaging impacts and legacy of this care.

Why did we choose the name, Mixed Race Irish? This is a very important question as it reflects the importance to us, as a group, of our Irish heritage, which was stolen from and denied to us. We grew up in Ireland and are, to all intents and purposes, Irish, yet we were treated differently and unequally in State institutions because of one simple factor, namely, the colour of our skin.

Mixed Race Irish was formally established in September 2013 by Evon Brennan, Rosemary Adaser and me. We came together at gatherings of industrial abuse groups. We realised at these meetings that there was no understanding or support for us, nor was there any room for debate on the colour specific racial suffering imposed on us, as children, and the impact this had on our lives. Our existence and unique experiences have been airbrushed from Irish survivor abuse history.

We have identified more than 70 mixed race survivors of institutions. We are also aware of seven suicides in our community. Upwards of 100 mixed race survivors remain unidentified or are missing or deceased. We continue to search for these individuals but it is a difficult task because it appears that no records of mixed race children are available.

Our group has 40 members and continues to grow. All of our members are aged over 50 years and are located in Ireland, Britain, the United States and China. Membership is split approximately 40% male and 60% female. Some of our members are present in the Public Gallery.

There is strong evidence that some members of the mixed race survivor community have experienced serious mental health problems, substance abuse, for example, drug and alcoholism, social isolation and inter-generational issues relating to racial abuse and poverty. I will address these matters in more detail later.

What are the aims of our campaign? We seek to raise awareness of the colour specific abuse of mixed race Irish people by reaching out to others and sharing our stories personally and, where appropriate, publicly, as we are doing today. We also seek recognition and an acknowledgement that the State failed mixed race children in institutional care. We seek justice through accountability and redress, arising from the requirement that the State provide for its failure to protect mixed race children in its care. We also seek assurances that the issue of racism be prioritised, as a State initiative, to ensure these types of abuses do not occur again, particularly in State run institutions.

I will now read a collective statement on behalf of the Mixed Race Irish group. This may take a moment as it is an emotional task for me.

The statement sums up what we are about:

It has taken us many years to have the courage to reveal the depth of our inner pain and suffering which has been internalised. This has only been made possible by us standing together as a collective group. The sharing of our horrific past has given us the strength to bring forth a long and well overdue past which we feel needs to be exposed. Many mixed race Irish carry deep scars of trauma and continue to suffer as a direct result of these past experiences which have left huge and everlasting wounds that may never heal.

As we highlight in our submission, the Constitution states all children of the nation are to be cherished equally. The document we have submitted to the committee shows how the State failed mixed race Irish children through inequality and discrimination. Our suffering manifested in a range of aspects, including mental health issues, questions of identity, a lack of opportunity which has had an intergenerational impact, poverty and income issues. Many of our members present with ongoing mental health problems which have had devastating impacts on their lives. One person told us, "I was forced to clean blocked toilets on the grounds that my colour was the same." Others spoke about bath time "as a means to inflict degrading racist sexual inspections," about being doused in talcum powder and told, "Now you know what it is like to be white."
Many of our members have lived with a lack of identity which has had a huge impact on their sense of self and belonging. An unconscious hatred of our black heritage was ingrained in us by institutions, matched by exclusion, where we were made to feel unwelcome and unwanted by Irish society. The failure to accept mixed race Irish people as part of Irish society, with neither recognition nor ethnic protection, is devastating. How can children protect themselves from discrimination in the absence of race policies and legislation? One of our members spoke about "wanting so much to be Irish, to belong, yet this constant questioning of my identity was so traumatising - no one attempted to explain my dual heritage." A white survivor observed that he knew his mixed race Irish friend was being treated unfairly and very badly, but he did not understand why until years later. It is his understanding that his friend is now deceased.
A study by Howard University in Washington DC points out that parents' responses to their own experiences of racial discrimination may influence their parenting and ability to teach their children to negotiate racism successfully. One member of our group recalls being told by a psychiatrist that, despite being highly intelligent, they were using only 10% of their mental capability owing to the trauma of racism and a lack of identity. That is a devastating realisation, particularly when one considers that in the case of many mixed race Irish children, their fathers were educated to high standards as doctors, engineers, etc.
Members have told how, at secondary school, the parish priest would single out mixed race children and racially abuse them in front of their peers. One person was told, "You have two drawbacks in life - one is the colour of your skin, and the second is you are illegitimate." Members talk about a pecking order, with coloured girls in the lower ranks. There was no career planning or work experience given because, as one member put it, "of the stereotype that we would become prostitutes."This resulted in many individuals not living up to their full potential.
Poverty is another issue for many of our members. One described how the lack of a trade was extremely damaging to one's survival post-institution. Another individual said, "Employers told me outright that they could not employ a nigger because I would scare people." These disclosures have come privately from members. Without protection, guidance and support regarding identity, we entered adulthood feeling inferior, which resulted in low self-confidence and affected our job prospects and educational outcomes.
In our submission we refer to a report sent by a doctor to the then Department of Education in 1966. The author observed that the future of the "coloured children" found in several schools presented a problem for which it would be difficult to find any satisfactory solution. Their prospects of marriage in Ireland, the report states, were practically nil and that their future happiness and welfare could only be assured in a country with a significant multiracial population since they were accepted by neither black nor white. The author further noted that these unfortunate children were at a disadvantage when it came to adoption. He added that they were often hot-tempered and difficult to control.
We state in our submission to the committee:

We note with horror the language in the above statement to the Minister for Education. We consider this language deeply offensive. This is the language that made mixed race Irish children the "Other" in Irish industrial schools and institutions and encapsulates the racist labelling that ensured our childhoods in Irish industrial schools were filled with terror, misery, abuse and pain.

It is our hope we can now commence the process of grieving for a lost identity, youth and heritage. That can only truly begin through recognition, acknowledgement and justice for the suffering of our members while om the care of the State. I thank members for listening.