Irish children ‘buried in mass grave at Scottish orphanage’

By Sean O’driscoll
Times
September 12, 2017

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/irish-children-buried-in-mass-grave-at-scottish-orphanage-5l6wdc38h

Smyllum Park in Lanark, Scotland, was run by Catholic nuns. More than 400 children are thought to have died there

Dozens of Irish children are allegedly buried in an unmarked grave used by a Catholic orphanage that is under investigation by the Scottish authorities, campaigners have said.

Andi Lavery, who has obtained a list of more than 400 children he believes may be buried at the site near Smyllum Park Catholic orphanage in Lanark, called on the Irish state to help press for further information on the children.

“There was mass migration from Ireland to Scotland for a long, long time. Some of those children ended up in Smyllum. I think that if the Irish government can stand up for Irish children in Tuam and Cork, it should also stand up for them in Scotland,” he said.

Mr Lavery said that he wanted the UN to intervene in the case. The Scottish child abuse inquiry is preparing to investigate the claims.

The alleged high infant mortality rate has raised concerns about conditions at the orphanage, which was operated by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul.

Researchers pieced together the names of those believed to be buried in the unmarked grave using the same techniques as Catherine Corless, the amateur historian who uncovered the names of hundreds of infants who were buried in an unmarked grave at a Catholic orphanage in Tuam, Co Galway. The Irish Mother and Baby Homes Commission, set up by the Irish government, confirmed earlier this year that it has uncovered an unmarked burial site at the Tuam orphanage.

The BBC has investigated the Smyllum case and has produced a radio documentary on the orphanage. File on 4: The Secrets of Smyllum Park is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 tonight at 8pm. It will allege that severe physical abuse took place there before its closure in 1981. The institution, which looked after children from broken homes, opened in 1864 and closed in 1981.

An estimated 11,600 children stayed at the orphanage from its opening to its closure. Former residents claim they were beaten and kicked by staff.

Learning from techniques used in Tuam, the BBC and Scottish Sunday Post found 402 death certificates for Smyllum Park children. Burial records were found for only two of the children. Based on the death records, an average of one child died every three months at Smyllum. About a third of those who died were aged five or under. Most of the deaths are believed to be from natural causes, mainly from disease such as TB, pneumonia and pleurisy.

A partial list of the children believed to be buried at the nearby site include many Irish émigrés and children born in Scotland to Irish parents. Some of the children have Irish birth certificates or their parents are listed as Irish.

They include Francis McColl, who died aged 13 in 1961 from what was listed by the nuns as a brain haemorrhage, and Catherine Hennessy, who died of a heart attack in 1948, aged ten. Others are five-month-old Margaret Daly, who died of heart failure in 1940; one-year-old James McDermott, who died of pneumonia in 1940; five-month-old Edith O’Hara, who died of malnutrition in 1939; and Margaret McNamara, Ellen McCann and Thomas McCready, all under the age of three, who died of measles in 1938.

The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul have confirmed that there is an unmarked grave for the orphanage children at a nearby graveyard, but has not commented further.