IRELAND
Irish Independent
Sarah Carey
Published 16/06/2014
The Tuam babies story presents us with the usual depressing challenges, but some hope.
The challenges include distinguishing the facts from the hysterics and the blame-storming from the truth.
Rosita Boland in The Irish Times did us all a favour by interviewing Catherine Corless, who spent significant time and money researching the deaths at the home.
Boland reported Corless’ dismay that about headlines claiming that the remains of 796 bodies were dumped in a disused sewage tank.
DISTORTIONS
No such discovery took place. No one even knows if the vault was ever used as a septic tank. And they think about 20 bodies were in it anyway. Considering the facts are horrendous in themselves, the distortions are inexcusable.
Historian Sean Lucey has revealed the social context of the “committals” to these Mother and Baby homes. He recounted one case of a girl sent to Bessborough – not by a priest – but by a council official in Kerry on the recommendation of a local “respectable” woman.
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