Tuam Mother and Baby Home Tragedy Attracts Widespread Condemnation, but Is Enough Being Done?
By Eoghan McDermott
The speech was up there with previous heavy-hitters from Enda such as his powerful speech on the Magdalene Laundries and his landmark speech on the Cloyne Report. The latter criticised the Vatican for attempting to frustrate the inquiry into the rape of children to protect its power and reputation. However, there have also been some concerns that what he said did not go far enough on this occasion. Brid Smith, the People Before Profit TD, has said the Government should look again at a 2002 deal between the Church and State which gave the Church a ˆ128million indemnity. Her party also called for the Bon Secours sisters to make a full and unreserved apology to the victims of Tuam, to open up all their files on the mother and baby homes for public scrutiny and to consider disbanding. Ironically, a new Bon Secours hospital was only this week opened by Minister for Finance Michael Noonan. The terms of reference for the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation are to examine the deaths of babies that happened at 14 mother and baby homes in addition to four county homes. Its final report is due for release in February 2018, and an interim report was sent to the Government eight months ago. It is estimated that at least 35,000 unmarried mothers spent time in these 14 homes and it’s thought that many of them, such as Castlepollard in Co Westmeath, hold the remains of up to 3,200 babies. However, about half of the mothers and children affected have been placed outside the scope of the inquiries. So unless the Government intervenes now to expand it, there will never be apologies, financial settlements or memorials for many of those who were treated so barbarically. Some of the survivors are ageing and in poor health or have died since the inquiry started. We cannot leave these people behind. Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone today said that she has been tasked with a “scoping exercise” to expand the Commission’s terms of reference. The interim report will be published by the end of the month, and the Government must deliver on it. Because statesmanlike speeches will only get us so far. We need more than what Hamlet described as words, words, words. Enda’s speech and its sentiments are absolutely to be applauded but noble words must also be met with actions, actions, actions. Iceland leading the way on pay IT’S more than fitting International Women’s Day was celebrated in the same week that Iceland said it would be leading the way on gender equality. Our friends to the far north will become the first country in the world to make companies prove they offer equal pay regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexuality or nationality.
Iceland’s aim is to eradicate the country’s gender gap by 2022. It’s hard to believe in 2017 that women are still not paid the same as men, but brilliant news that work is being done to ensure equality. Better late, than never! For the past eight years, Iceland has topped the World Economic Forum’s gender gap index which measures the gap in income between men and women. You might be pleased to hear that out of 145 countries, Ireland is fifth on the list, compared with, for example, France at 15, the UK at 18, the US at 28, Australia at 36 and Israel at 53. The idiotic MEP who this week said women should be paid less because “they are weaker, they are smaller, they are less intelligent” comes from Poland. They come in at 51.
Janusz Korwin-Mikke is probably one of the idiots that asks every single year why there isn’t an International Men’s Day? There is — it’s on November 19. Have you not heard of Google either? Feel no shame for asking for aid THE State of the Nation’s Children Report has had a profound effect on me. The good news is that it says nine out of ten children in Ireland claim to be happy with their lives. Blindboy Boatclub from The Rubberbandits is Keynote speaker at this year’s Self-Harm Awareness Conference Other findings show one in three list reading as a hobby and less teens than ever are trying drugs. But, and it’s a big but, hidden stresses are blighting the lives of some young people, as can be seen from the disturbing figures on self-harming. I’m an ambassador for Pieta House and have spoken in the past about my own experiences of self-harm. I even did a YouTube video a couple of years ago about my experience. I said it on my show but I’m saying it again — if you’re not feeling well, don’t be embarrassed or ashamed. Just talk to someone if you can. And if you can’t tell a family member or friend, talk to a guidance counsellor at school or a counsellor at Pieta House. It offers free counselling and even sponsored last week’s Self-Harm Awareness Conference at the Aviva Stadium. Contact Pieta House too if someone you know is struggling. And most of all, hold on to hope. I promise you it gets better. Outrage just a load of bol “SCANDAL”, “shocked and appalled” and “internet up in arms” were just some of the headlines this week after Mary Berry’s crime of putting rogue ingredients into a recipe for bolognese sauce on her new show. With this level of moral outrage you would expect the ingredients to be pretty scandalous — something gross like diced raw rat or fox turds, maybe? But no.
Turns out it was just white wine and double cream that she used — two staples of many kitchens. So why are so many people getting their knickers in a twist? There seems to be a culture of being perpetually outraged on the internet. Any day of the week there are people up in arms over matters entirely trivial — which takes away from stuff we should actually be concerned about. So if that’s you, please stop being perpetually offended. Really.
There are more important things to worry about and bigger injustices to take to task than what someone puts in their spag bol. Proud of CEOL album as Gaelige ON my 2FM drivetime show, I launched CEOL 2017, an album of 12 songs as Gaeilge. It’s an album we’ve worked on all year and I’m so, so proud of it and all the bands and artists that took part. Last year, we had Ed Sheeran, launch CEOL with Thinking Out Loud and this year it was the band Picture This with Take My Hand.
They took a break from the recording studio in the US where they’re working on their album to talk to me. Other acts on the album include Walking on Cars, Gabrielle Aplin and Delorentos. This year we also have an American act after Matt Simons recorded his hit song Catch and Release for us — a song that’s had over a quarter of a billion streams, which is pretty impressive and it sounds even more amazing in Irish. We’re hoping to reach the same heights as last year with it — we’re already on 300,000 views and counting. Woo hoo! The album is a triumph for the Irish language and it’s great that an album as Gaeilge is still relevant to young people. Long may it continue.
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