Barnardos – helping those who were farmed out and forgotten

Ireland has a chequered history regarding the care of its children. The publication of reports into the Magdalene laundries and mother-and-baby homes, the many stories recounted by women who lost their children, and children who lost their identities, are sad testaments to this. These reports, these lived experiences, paint bleak pictures of a harsh place for young mothers and their children.

From the turn of the 20th century until the introduction of the Child Care Act in 1991, there were many reasons why children – formally and informally – became part of the childcare system in place during that period, explains Natalie: “For children born in mother-and-baby institutions, county homes, and private nursing homes to unmarried mothers, many were nursed out as infants by the authorities to families other than their own.
“In families where a parent died, or a parent was unable to care for the children due to poverty or illness, these children were boarded out by the authorities to families other than their own. Children in industrial schools were also boarded out to farms and homes around the country." Children were also boarded out among members of their extended families, Natalie says:

"Informal arrangements between families were common where children were sent to live with a relative to help ease the burden on a family with a lot of children, or a child could be sent to live with a relative to work on the farm or care for an ailing aunt or grandparent.”
Although the exact number of children boarded out in Ireland is unknown, Natalie says that information from the Adoption Authority of Ireland and the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes indicates that between 1920-1970, approximately 20,000-30,000 children were boarded out by the State.

A lasting impact

Barnardos' Boarded Out Practical Support Service for Adults was launched in July 2023 to offer help to today’s adults whose childhoods reflect these situations. Natalie explains: “From speaking with people who have been boarded out as children, it’s clear how this early experience can have a lasting impact throughout their lives. For some people the trauma of early separation from their mothers, and the subsequent experience of abuse, missed educational opportunities, forced labour, stigma and lack of information about their identity and reasons for being boarded out or fostered can have lifelong consequences because childhood lasts a lifetime.”
Natalie is keen to point out that being boarded out was not a negative experience for all who experienced it: “For some children, being boarded out was a positive experience, where they grew up feeling part of a family, where their needs were met, and they were looked after well.” But for others, she says, their experiences were traumatic. “Children were boarded out to families where they experienced maltreatment, were kept home from school to carry out unpaid farm and domestic work that was not appropriate for their age. Many of these children grew up without any information about their family of origin or the reason they were boarded out.”

Support available

Today, there are people living in our rural communities who were boarded out as children and who are still affected by their early experiences. Natalie explains: “Barnardos wants to raise awareness of our service among the farming and rural communities, so we can reach people who may need our support.” Barnardos has centres in Dublin, Cork and Galway, and its community support workers can meet people in these centres, or they can travel to people’s homes, or meet somewhere local to the person who requires help. “The service is open to anyone regardless of how long they were boarded out, fostered out, nursed out, whether the boarding out was a formal or informal arrangement or whether the experience was positive or negative,” says Natalie.