IRELAND
Limerick Leader
by Mike Dwane
Published on the 13 June 2014
MISSING burial records for almost 800 infants who died at St Mary’s mother and baby home in Tuam in the 36 years to 1961 have resulted in a storm of publicity around the world.
And many of the details in those media reports have been unearthed by Limerick historian Liam Hogan.
Tuam historian Catherine Corless, whose research on the Bon Secours home in the Galway town has ultimately resulted in a government inquiry, has distanced herself from more sensationalist reports of 800 babies “buried in a septic tank”.
And Mr Hogan, who works at Limerick City Library, said he had also taken the dispassionate historian’s approach to releasing information on the home he has found in newspaper archives in the last number of weeks.
“I had read about Catherine Corless and the revelations and wondered to myself how did we get to that point where we don’t know where nearly 800 children are buried. I just delved as far back as I could go on what was relevant and tweeted a contemporaneous account. People were really curious to see what the attitudes were at the time and what may have led to what we have learned in the last couple of weeks. I tried to create a narrative to help people understand it more,” said Mr Hogan.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.