‘It was a prison’: Man born in Irish orphanage where mass grave discovered demands apology

IRELAND
CBC News

[with audio]

A man who was born in a former Catholic home for orphans and unwed mothers in Ireland where a mass child grave has been discovered is demanding an apology from church and the government.

P.J. Haverty was born at the state-sanctioned and church-run Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway County, in 1951. He lived there until he was 6 1/2 years old, at which point he was put into foster care against his mother’s will, he said.

“They call it a home, but I call it a prison, ’cause that’s what it was, it was a prison,” Haverty told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann. “There was no love, no nothing.”

A judge-led government commission announced Friday the discovery of an underground structure at the site of the home containing “significant quantities of human remains.”

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