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Episode 1943: A Momentous Week for Irish Society, Fionn’s Story

Fri 15th Jan 2021
Eoin, Fionn Davenport

**NOTE: This was initially a Second Captains World Service members-only show broadcasted first on 15th of January 2021. Due to the importance of the subject matter and the huge reaction to Fionn’s story, we have decided to re-publish for all today, the 19th of January. To help us continue to produce independent, member-led journalism like this and projects like ‘Where Is George Gibney?’, please join the Second Captains World Service for just €5 a month. Enjoy the show and thanks to all our members as always for their support.**

Today we go entirely outside of sport on the Second Captains World Service and the magnitude of the Mother and Baby report this week in Ireland warrants it, particularly when a friend of the podcast has such an important story to tell.

Fionn Davenport was born in the St Patrick’s Mother and Baby home on the Navan Rd in Dublin in 1968. His mother Jane was lied to and told she couldn’t keep her son. Fionn was adopted soon afterwards.

This week, this dark part of our history has been brought into sharp focus. On Tuesday, the final report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation was published, detailing the cruelty experienced by thousands of women and children at 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes across Ireland between 1922 and 1998, and the following day the Taoiseach issued a state apology for how these people were treated.

Fionn is now a well-known travel writer and editor and he tells us his emotional story; the impact it’s had on him throughout his life, the significance of this week’s report and the roadblocks that still exist for survivors.

Click the image at the top of the page to play the show. Monday’s shows are free to all – to listen to our programming throughout the rest of the week, join the Second Captains World Service. It’s independent, commercial-free and member-led with feature interviews, breaking news, Richie Sadlier’s Player’s Chair, The Game That Changed My Life, The Book Club and lots of added extras.

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