http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/cahirodoherty/Galway-historian-reveals-truth-behind-800-orphans-in-mass-grave.html
TL;DR version:
From 1925 to 1961 nuns ran an institution where unwed mothers could give birth/drop off their babies. The kids were social outcasts in the community. Health inspections found many kids suffering from neglect and malnutrition.
Later shitloads of child skeletons are found in a septic tank. Local historian asks for death records - 796 recorded child deaths in the 36 years that the institution was open.
:cry:
QuoteGalway historian reveals truth behind 800 orphans in mass grave
There is a growing international scandal around the history of The Home, a grim 1840's workhouse in Tuam in Galway built on seven acres that was taken over in 1925 by the Bon Secours sisters, who turned it into a Mother and Baby home for "fallen women."
The long abandoned site made headlines around the world this week when it was revealed that a nearby septic tank contained the bodies of up to eight hundred infants and children, secretly buried without coffins or headstones on unconsecrated ground between 1925 and 1961.
Now a local historian has stepped forward to outline the terrible circumstances around so many lost little lives.
Catherine Corless, the local historian and genealogist, remembers the Home Babies well. "They were always segregated to the side of regular classrooms," Corless tells IrishCentral. "By doing this the nuns telegraphed the message that they were different and that we should keep away from them.
"They didn't suggest we be nice to them. In fact if you acted up in class some nuns would threaten to seat you next to the Home Babies. That was the message we got in our young years," Corless recalls.
Now a dedicated historian of the site, as a schoolgirl Corless recalls watching an older friend wrap a tiny stone inside a bright candy wrapper and present it as a gift to one of them.
"When the child opened it she saw she'd been fooled," Corless says. "Of course I copied her later and I tried to play the joke on another little Home girl. I thought it was funny at the time."
But later – years later – Corless realized that the children she taunted had nobody. "Years after I asked myself what did I do to that poor little girl that never saw a sweet? That has stuck with me all my life. A part of me wants to make up to them."
Surrounded by an eight-foot high wall, Tuam, County Galway locals say that they saw little to nothing of the daily life of The Home or of the pregnant young mothers who arrived and left it without a word over the decades.
In the few surviving black and white photographs taken at the site no child is smiling. Instead they simply frown at the camera, their blank stares suggesting the terrible conditions.
A local health board inspection report from April 1944 recorded 271 children and 61 single mothers in residence, a total of 333 in a building that had a capacity for 243.
The report described the children as "emaciated," "pot-bellied," "fragile" with "flesh hanging loosely on limbs." The report noted that 31 children in the "sun room and balcony" were "poor, emaciated and not thriving." The effects of long term neglect and malnutrition were observed repeatedly.
Children died at The Home at the rate of one a fortnight for almost 40 years, one report claims. Another appears to claim that 300 children died between 1943 and 1946, which would mean two deaths a week in the isolated institution.
In The Home's 36 years of operation between 1926 and 1961 some locals told the press this week of unforgettable interactions with its emaciated children, who because of their "sinful" origins were considered socially radioactive and treated as such.
One local said: "I remember some of them in class in the Mercy Convent in Tuam – they were treated marginally better than the traveler children. They were known locally as the "Home Babies." For the most part the children were usually gone by school age – either adopted or dead."
Because of Corless' efforts we now know the names and fates of up to 796 forgotten infants and children who died there, thanks to her discovery of their death records when researching The Home's history.
"First I contacted the Bon Secours sisters at their headquarters in Cork and they replied they no longer had files or information about The Home because they had left Tuam in 1961 and had handed all their records over to the Western Health Board."
Undaunted, Corless turned to The Western Health Board, who told her there was no general information on the daily running of the place.
"Eventually I had the idea to contact the registry office in Galway. I remembered a law was enacted in 1932 to register every death in the country. My contact said give me a few weeks and I'll let you know."
"A week later she got back to me and said do you really want all of these deaths? I said I do. She told me I would be charged for each record. Then she asked me did I realize the enormity of the numbers of deaths there?"
The registrar came back with a list of 796 children. "I could not believe it. I was dumbfounded and deeply upset," says Corless. "There and then I said this isn't right. There's nothing on the ground there to mark the grave, there's nothing to say it's a massive children's graveyard. It's laid abandoned like that since it was closed in 1961."
The certificates Corless received record each child's age, name, date – and in some cases – cause of death. "I have the full list and it's going up on a plaque for the site, which we're fundraising for at the moment. We want it to be bronze so that it weathers better. We want to do it in honor of the children who were left there forgotten for all those years. It's a scandal."
Corless believes that nothing was said or done to expose the truth because people believed illegitimate children didn't matter. "That's what really hurts and moved me to do something," she explains.
During its years of operation the children of The Home were referred to as "inmates" in the press. It was believed by the clergy that the harsh conditions there were in themselves a form of corrective penance. The state, the church and their families all failed these women, Corless contends.
But even now the unexpected difficulty that the local committee Corless has joined to fundraise for a plaque to remember the dead children suggests that not everyone wants to confront the truth about the building's tragic past.
"I do blame the Catholic Church," says Corless. "I blame the families as well but people were afraid of the parish priest. I think they were brainwashed. I suppose the lesson is not to be hiding things. To face up to reality.
"My fear is that if things aren't faced now it's very easy to slide back into this kind of cover-up again. I want the truth out there. If you give people too much power it's dangerous."
Living and dying in a culture of shame and silence for decades, the Home Babies' very existence was considered an affront to Ireland and God.
It was a different time, some defenders argued this week, omitting to mention that the stigmatizing silence that surrounded The Home was fostered by clerics. Indeed the religious orders were so successful at silencing their critics that for decades even to speak of The Home was to risk contagion.
And now that terrifying era of shame and silence is finally lifting, we are left to ask what all their lonesome suffering was in aid of, and what did it actually achieve?
A commenter has posted some excerpts from the county archives:
QuoteInteresting points from the Galway County Archives:
"In
May 1926 the Committee submitted a recommendation to the Board of Health that
it '...arrange for the establishment of a Maternity ward in the County Home for
unmarried mothers, as the admission of this class of patients to the Maternity
Department of the Central Hospital tends to prevent respectable patients from
seeking admission thereto" (GC6/5, 12 May 1926, p2). And later:
"In 1927 the Committee passed the following resolution,
'That considering the prevalence of sexual immorality, as evidenced by the
number of illegitimate births at the Maternity Hospital in Galway, this
Committee deplore the departure from the old Gaelic traditions of purity,
caused, in our opinion by the lessening of parental control, and the lack of
proper supervision on the occasion of dances and other entertainments of a
similar nature, and we therefore most respectfully suggest to the Hierarchy of
this County, to appeal to the people, through the Clergy, for a return to the
old Gaelic customs, under which such scandals were practically unknown"
(GC6/6, 15 June 1927, pp5-6).
Up until the mid-1930s the Matron usually reported on the
number of unmarried mothers admitted each month, followed by details relating
to attempts to recoup the costs from the putative fathers. "In 1937 the
Board passed a resolution ordering that 'Unmarried mothers are not, in future,
to be admitted" (GC6/16, 20 March 1937, p20).
Sounds like the background for a Pogues song. :(
Probably happened all over the country. Not to mention the treatment of the mothers :(
Papists will be papists.
I'm guessing this case will have an immense impact on the Irish stance towards the Church.
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on June 04, 2014, 02:28:17 PM
I'm guessing this case will have an immense impact on the Irish stance towards the Church.
Just another scandal, alas:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_and_Child_Scheme
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Asylum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sexual_abuse_scandal_in_Ireland
:bleeding:
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on June 04, 2014, 02:28:17 PM
I'm guessing this case will have an immense impact on the Irish stance towards the Church.
You think so? After the sexual abuse scandals I figured that impact had already been had.
Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on June 04, 2014, 02:28:17 PM
I'm guessing this case will have an immense impact on the Irish stance towards the Church.
^_^
Quote from: The Brain on June 04, 2014, 02:16:18 PM
Papists will be papists.
Your just bitter they didn't buy any ball bearings.
Relatively speaking, I think this restores men to the premier position of moral authority in the church hierarchy. Sure they raped the kids in their care, but there aren't many stories of them being killed.
'God' 'works' in 'mysterious ways'.
This reminds me of the stories of unwanted children literally dying on the streets in European cities back in the day.
Quote from: Valmy on June 04, 2014, 04:01:22 PM
This reminds me of the stories of unwanted children literally dying on the streets in European cities back in the day.
:yes: And evil King George was stalking the streets drinking their blood.
Quote from: The Brain on June 04, 2014, 04:06:37 PM
:yes: And evil King George was stalking the streets drinking their blood.
Well this was a description of cities in Italy during the Renaissance but maybe George had a time machine.
Quote from: Valmy on June 04, 2014, 04:16:23 PM
Quote from: The Brain on June 04, 2014, 04:06:37 PM
:yes: And evil King George was stalking the streets drinking their blood.
Well this was a description of cities in Italy during the Renaissance but maybe George had a time machine.
"Had" a time machine? Meaningless.
Quote from: Valmy on June 04, 2014, 04:16:23 PM
Quote from: The Brain on June 04, 2014, 04:06:37 PM
:yes: And evil King George was stalking the streets drinking their blood.
Well this was a description of cities in Italy during the Renaissance but maybe George had a time machine.
Whitch time-travelling King George are we talking about - the sad one, the bad one, the mad one, or the fat one?
Quote from: Malthus on June 04, 2014, 04:22:15 PM
Quote from: Valmy on June 04, 2014, 04:16:23 PM
Quote from: The Brain on June 04, 2014, 04:06:37 PM
:yes: And evil King George was stalking the streets drinking their blood.
Well this was a description of cities in Italy during the Renaissance but maybe George had a time machine.
Whitch time-travelling King George are we talking about - the sad one, the bad one, the mad one, or the fat one?
The mad one of course. He is a tyrant and enemy of freedom everywhere.
Whoops.
Quote from: Valmy on June 04, 2014, 04:25:07 PM
Quote from: Malthus on June 04, 2014, 04:22:15 PM
Quote from: Valmy on June 04, 2014, 04:16:23 PM
Quote from: The Brain on June 04, 2014, 04:06:37 PM
:yes: And evil King George was stalking the streets drinking their blood.
Well this was a description of cities in Italy during the Renaissance but maybe George had a time machine.
Whitch time-travelling King George are we talking about - the sad one, the bad one, the mad one, or the fat one?
The mad one of course. He is a tyrant and enemy of freedom everywhere.
Maybe, but Jesus man you can't tell a Jew it's madness to drink the blood of children.
Good men do good things, and evil men do evil things, but only through religion will good men do evil things.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/04/children-galway-mass-graves-ireland-catholic-church
QuoteTell us the truth about the children dumped in Galway's mass graves
Forget prayers. Only full disclosure by Ireland's Catholic church can begin to atone for the children who died in its care
The bodies of 796 children, between the ages of two days and nine years old, have been found in a disused sewage tank in Tuam, County Galway. They died between 1925 and 1961 in a mother and baby home under the care of the Bon Secours nuns.
Locals have known about the grave since 1975, when two little boys, playing, broke apart the concrete slab covering it and discovered a tomb filled with small skeletons. A parish priest said prayers at the site, and it was sealed once more, the number of bodies below unknown, their names forgotten.
The Tuam historian Catherine Corless discovered the extent of the mass grave when she requested records of children's deaths in the home. The registrar in Galway gave her almost 800. Shocked, she checked 100 of these against graveyard burials, and found only one little boy who had been returned to a family plot. The vast majority of the children's remains, it seemed, were in the septic tank. Corless and a committee have been working tirelessly to raise money for a memorial that includes a plaque bearing each child's name.
For those of you unfamiliar with how, until the 1990s, Ireland dealt with unmarried mothers and their children, here it is: the women were incarcerated in state-funded, church-run institutions called mother and baby homes or Magdalene asylums, where they worked to atone for their sins. Their children were taken from them.
According to Corless, death rates for children in the Tuam mother and baby home, and in similar institutions, were four to five times that of the general population. A health board report from 1944 on the Tuam home describes emaciated, potbellied children, mentally unwell mothers and appalling overcrowding. But, as Corless points out, this was no different to other homes in Ireland. They all had the same mentality: that these women and children should be punished.
Ireland knows all this. We know about the abuse women and children suffered at the hands of the clergy, abuse funded by a theocratic Irish state. What we didn't know is that they threw dead children into unmarked mass graves. But we're inured to these revelations by now.
Corless expresses surprise that the media were so slow to report her story, that people didn't seem to care. If two children were found in an unmarked grave, she observes, it would be news; what about 800? But what is the difference between the wall of lies, denial and secrecy the church constructed to protect its paedophile priests and a concrete slab over the bodies of 796 children neglected to death by nuns? Good people unearth these evil truths, but the church always survives.
The archbishop of Tuam and the head of the Irish Bon Secours sisters will soon meet to discuss the memorial and service planned at the site. The Bon Secours sisters have donated what the Irish TV station RTÉ describes as "a small sum" to the children's graveyard committee.
Father Fintan Monaghan, secretary of the Tuam archdiocese, says: "I suppose we can't really judge the past from our point of view, from our lens. All we can do is mark it appropriately and make sure there is a suitable place here where people can come and remember the babies that died."
Let's not judge the past on our morals, then, but on the morals of the time. Was it OK, in mid-20th century Ireland, to throw the bodies of dead children into sewage tanks? Monaghan is really saying: "don't judge the past at all". But we must judge the past, because that is how we learn from it.
Monaghan is correct that we need to mark history appropriately. That's why I am offering the following suggestions as to what the church should do to in response:
Do not say Catholic prayers over these dead children. Don't insult those who were in life despised and abused by you. Instead, tell us where the rest of the bodies are. There were homes throughout Ireland, outrageous child mortality rates in each. Were the Tuam Bon Secours sisters an anomalous, rebellious sect? Or were church practices much the same the country over? If so, how many died in each of these homes? What are their names? Where are their graves? We don't need more platitudinous damage control, but the truth about our history.
Agree totally. Gives me a chance to re-post Enda Kenny on the Cloyne Report. Still the best thing he's done and essential:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo5MXrqbDeA