Screening: The Missing Children followed by Q&A with Director Tanya Stephan

A special showing of feature documentary Missing Children and an exclusive Q&A with BAFTA winning director Tanya Stephan is taking place at HEART Headingley in October.  

Renewing Roots - a charitable project offering free, confidential support to former residents of Ireland’s notorious institutions - intends that the screening will honour and celebrate survivors, as well as encourage more to come forward for help in accessing the Irish Government’s redress scheme.  

Up to 40% of former residents of Ireland’s Mother & Baby Homes are now thought to live in the UK, and Renewing Roots is keen to reach former residents among Leeds’ sizeable Irish population and from across the north of England. Missing Children will be shown at HEART, Headingley 10 October at 6.30pm.  

At the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Ireland, 796 children, born to unwed mothers, have disappeared. The remains of some have been found in a sewage tank. And the nuns were involved. Were hundreds of children buried in unmarked graves across the country or were some illegally adopted, never to know where they came from? 

The feature length documentary, The Missing Children  tells the extraordinary and moving stories of some of the children who survived life at the home, and the search to uncover the truth about what happened to those who’ve disappeared. The search uncovers falsified documents and exposes a trans-Atlantic network that trafficked thousands of children. Some survivors still recall the cruelty of the Bon Secours nuns who ran the notorious institution. Others were adopted to America and are only now discovering relations in Ireland and the UK.   

The scandal of Ireland’s mother and baby homes made headline news in January 2021 when the final report from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation was released. The report concluded that approximately 9,000 children died in 18 institutions under investigation, prompting an unprecedented apology from the Irish State. The whereabouts of their remains is still unknown. 

The Missing Children is the definitive film about the scandal of Ireland’s disappeared children, uncovering the truth of a shocking story that continues to affect the lives of many in Ireland, the US and the UK.  

There will be a live Q&A following the screening with BAFTA winning Tanya Stephan. Film contributor and campaigner Annette McKay will also be part of the Q&A. Annette’s mother was in Tuam and her sister Mary Margaret is one of the 796. Annette also sits on the advisory board for the Tuam excavation. The Q&A will be facilitated by Ant Hanlon of Leeds Irish Health and Homes.

Tanya Stephan is a BAFTA and multi award winning British documentary director. She began her career as a radio journalist for the BBC then trained at the National Film and TV School in London. She’s directed seventeen films and series for British and International broadcast. Her film The Missing Children about the Tuam mother and baby home scandal was broadcast on ITV, RTE and on Amazon and Apple TV in the USA, and won a BAFTA, A Royal Television Society Journalism Award and a Grierson British Documentary Award, She also recently directed Ukraine’s War Diaries following the personal stories of Ukrainians surviving life on the front line. The film was broadcast on BBC One to mark the first anniversary of the invasion. In 2025 she directed The Girl Who Caught A Killer for Sky Documentaries which is now the most watched true crime documentary ever on Sky. She is currently directing a film about the excavation at the site of the Tuam mother and baby institution told through the stories of family members of the missing children, and survivors and adoptees of the institution. 

This is a free event open to the public. Please book to reserve your place.