‘they Were Known As the Children of Sin’

By Lorna Siggins
Irish Times
March 4, 2017

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/they-were-known-as-the-children-of-sin-1.2997325?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fireland%2Firish-news%2Fthey-were-known-as-the-children-of-sin-1.2997325

They were known as the “home babies”, and Kevin O’Dwyer says he can still hear the clatter of their hobnail boots on the way to primary school.

O’Dwyer, a retired school principal and longtime resident of Tuam, was reared on the old Athenry road close to the Bon Secours institution.

“We’d hear the boots on the road in the morning,” he says.

”They were always kept back so they wouldn’t arrive at school the same time as the rest of us. That also meant they got a slap for being late – every single day.”

“They had to wear uniforms when the rest of us didn’t, they were put into separate lines, they had a separate area in the playground, and we never even got to know their names,” he says.