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Babies that died in Tuam horror home were thrown out 'like garbage' says survivor

By James Fogarty
Irish Mirror
March 4, 2017

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/babies-died-tuam-horror-home-9965591

J.P Rodgers who was born in the Tuam Mother and Babies Home stands with his back to the playground where more remains my be buried.
Photo by Andy Newman

Catherine Corless at the boarded up site at Tuam Mothers and Babies home where there is now verified evidence of remains of a significant number of babies and young children being buried.
Photo by Ray Ryan

Mother and baby home in Tuam

Infants and children that died in the Tuam Mother and Baby horror home were thrown out “like garbage”, a survivor of the institution told the Irish Mirror.

JP Rodgers was born in the home in 1947 and at just one years old he was separated from his mother Bridie, who was sent to the Magdalene Laundry in Galway city.

He said : “There were hundreds of children at the home. To my eyes as a little child, it was like a rabid colony.

“Everyone was suffering from something. I would spend hours standing on my own in the middle of that institution because I was terrified, because I didn’t know who to trust.

And I was sick for months and months on end. But I survived that and I recovered.”

JP would stay in the home until five years old when he was fostered out.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation revealed the shock news on Friday that significant quantities of human remains had been discovered at the site in the County Galway town.

The remains were aged from stillborn babies to two-three years old and were have buried in a septic tank.

JP, 69, said that while the report vindicates the work of the heroic Catherine Corless, who drove the campaign for justice, its finding are horrifying.

He said :“I can’t find the words and I don’t think the words exist that can express the horror and the revulsion, that they thought that we were so worthless that we should end up in that kind of a state.

“My memory of growing up was that in every parish when a child or infant died there was a funeral, a mass and there was a grave yard. They were buried with great dignity and respect as human beings.

“Why wasn’t that done for these little infants? What was wrong with them? They were just thrown out like garbage.”

He added that the pain at the way his mother was treated is still very raw.

“This morning I just thought about the mothers and their pain and what they went through. Their little children were stolen away from them.

“In the eyes of the church and the state, some of these women were classed as insane and sent to institutions if they were headstrong like my mother was.

“My mother was fighting her corner. She wanted her child and she wanted to keep her child.”

After 15 years, his mother eventually escaped from the laundry by climbing over the wall and fleeing to England. Mother and son were reunited later in life.

“She went through a living hell. She was very, very determined woman. She was made of great stuff. And when I got to know her I realised that I was dealing with a lady. She was so, so good.”

JP said he was “exceptionally lucky” and “blessed” to be fostered by a family that was good to him. However the mother and baby home system was wrong.

“The Tuam Mother and Baby Home was probably Ireland’s first super market where people came and picked children like you’d pick items off the shelf.”

Now a grandfather with a “wonderful” wife and family, JP is an acclaimed author having written about his and his mother’s experiences.

“I have seen the wonderful plaque that is ready to be put up, naming all these almost 800 children. I want that to go up immediately. It is my wish.

“Ireland needs to wake up. We need to try and learn from our history so that we can become better.”

Groups are now calling for the State to ensure that all human remains buried in unmarked graves at institutions are identified.




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