IRELAND
Irish Mirror
Jun 04, 2014 21:29 By Niall Moonan
Tom Ward, 72, reveals how he and other children were treated as “outcasts” at home where 800 bodies were found in unmarked grave
A pensioner has told how he and other children were treated as “outcasts” at the home at the centre of 800 babies scandal.
Tom Ward, 72, spent five and a half years at the institution before he was fostered by a Galway family.
He said: “The teachers, doctors, priests, they all looked down on us. We were only a number but things have changed, thanks be to God.
“I was fostered off to somebody. There were a lot of us fostered people. They got paid for having us in the house and they reared us, but the priests, the teachers, they all left us out.
“When we would go to town events or coming down from Mass, someone would say ‘Who’s the little laddie?’ and they would reply ‘Oh he was fostered out of that home’ and all eyes turned away. We were just outcasts.
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.