IRELAND
Galway Advertiser
MARY O’CONNOR
The discovery of the remains of almost 800 children on the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, over a five decade period must herald the beginning of an “honest appraisal” of what went on at all the other homes throughout the country, a local TD insisted this week.
Deputy Catherine Connolly said equally, the role that both the State and church played in the “incarceration of women and their babies” must also come under the spotlight.
“In this regard, the official reaction to Catherine Corless’ research almost two years ago does not give us much hope that we as a society and more particularly the Bon Secours Sisters have reached the point where we can both face the truth and learn from it,” stated the Galway West Independent TD.
She described the reaction of the Bon Secours Order as “simply appalling”. “Indeed, when Catherine Corless first spoke publicly of her research, the PR consultant for the Bon Secours Sisters went so far as to tell us ‘when you come here, you’ll find no mass grave, no evidence that children were ever so buried, and a local police force casting their eyes to heaven and saying ‘Yeah, a few bones were found – but this was an area where famine victims were buried. So?’
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