The Iona Institute hosted Dr Finola Kennedy recently who described how, from 1930, and very much against the prevailing mood of the time, Frank Duff and the Legion of Mary helped unmarried mothers to keep their babies. He did this with scarce resources and the help of the Legion’s volunteers. This was in strong contrast to the mother and baby homes and county homes which sought to separate the mothers from their babies. The Legion’s approach was not judgmental or condemnatory. Duff, the Legion’s founder, very strongly believed in the mother/child bond.

Dr Kennedy’s full talk can be found here. A summary of it can be found here.

Dr Kennedy is the biographer of Frank Duff.