Abuse survivor fears Church 'sold' his baby sister to a family in America

By David Blevins
SKY News
August 22, 2018

https://news.sky.com/story/abuse-survivor-fears-church-sold-his-baby-sister-to-a-family-in-america-11477833

Peter Mulryan says his mother and other women were forced into slave labour

Some of the women detained by the Church were immortalised in the film The Magdalene Sisters

Sky News visited the site where Peter's mother was detained

A son speaks out about his mother's detention by the Catholic Church and his fears his sister could be dead or have been sold.

Her only crime was becoming pregnant "out of wedlock".

Peter Mulryan says his mother and the other women, immortalised in the film The Magdalene Sisters, were forced into slave labour.

"The poor mothers would be slaving from seven o'clock in the morning until seven o'clock in the evening.

"They couldn't even talk to one another, communicate, laugh or joke. It was so sad an environment to be in," he said.

Delia's own father had taken her from their home during the night at the behest of the parish priest.

"He spoke to my grandfather and what he said was, 'I believe there's a scandal in the family... you've a daughter who's pregnant and she's not allowed to stay in the parish.'"

"They had to go about 20 miles in the dark of night… and the only means of transport was two bicycles.

"They were travelling all night and got back again before daylight because they couldn't let anyone see them," Peter explained.

Peter himself suffered at the hands of the Church.

He spent the first four years of his life in appalling conditions in a mother and baby home at Tuam. In 2013, the remains of hundreds of children were found buried in a septic tank there.

Peter was then "farmed out" to work as a labourer.

Despite being incarcerated at the laundry, his mother gave birth to a second child. The father's name is not on the birth certificate.

The Church claims the child died but Peter doesn't trust the death certificate and fears his baby sister was sold to a family in America.

"I think she could still be alive. With all the denials that there was ever anybody sold off from this country to America. Now we've discovered there's thousands," he said.

Peter, who's trying to have the remains from the Tuam home DNA tested to establish if his sister did die there, wants an apology from Pope Francis.

"I don't blame God for this because it was a man-made part of history what was done to my mother and done to me.

"I blame society and the state and religious order. The religious order ran this country the way they wanted it."