IRELAND
Irish Central

Dara Kelly @irishcentral July 14,2015

A letter from the nuns at Sean Ross Abbey in County Tipperary to adoptive parents, published this week, throws a harsh light on the prevailing attitudes of the clergy to unwed Irish mothers and their offspring, who were often forcibly adopted for cash, records show.

Mary Lawlor was offered for adoption by the nuns at Sean Ross Abbey in the early 1960s. This week she published letters to her adoptive parents from the nuns that underline their disapproving attitudes to the children of unwed and poor mothers.

In the letter the nuns warn Lawlor’s adoptive parents not to choose a child of the “wrong class,” and they advise them that “the better class girl has to leave here quickly so as not to be detected in her sorrow,” implying that her child will be much younger and easier to parent.

In…