IRELAND
Irish Examiner
Thursday, August 06, 2015
By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter
The reaction of the Government to a shocking 2012 HSE report on Bessborough Mother and Baby Home has been instructive.
The revelations contained in the report have clearly put it in an uncomfortable position. Despite the shock displayed once the Tuam babies story went global — it is now clear that the Government had possession of a report showing a higher death rate in Bessborough almost two years earlier.
When the report, compiled as part of the HSE’s examination of the State’s role in the Magdalene Laundries as part of the McAleese inquiry, was made public by the Irish Examiner in June, along with equally disturbing material relating to Tuam Mother and Baby Home, the reaction of Government was to first deny it had ever seen it, then admit that, in fact, two departments had the report before finally labelling the entire study “conjecture”.
Even if you accept the “conjecture” line, it is impossible to get away from the finding on the number of infant deaths at Bessborough.
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They are worth repeating. Between 1934 and 1953, Bessborough’s Registration of Deaths ledger records a “shocking” 478 children as having died at the institution.
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