IRELAND
Irish Independent
John Downing
March 7 2017
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has described the Tuam Mother and Baby Home – where hundreds of babies’ remains were discovered – as “a chamber of horrors.”
In a very strongly-worded response to questions about the controversy, Mr Kenny said the Tuam revelations did not only concern a mass grave – but “a social and cultural sepulchre.”
Mr Kenny said the revelations were a cause of shock and shame across the country. He said the nuns who ran mother and baby homes did not “kidnap children” – society gave up the children to these nuns, in part to spare them the viciousness of gossip.
“Women of that era had an amazing capacity to self-impregnate,” he said with irony in reference to widespread hypocrisy in Irish society in recent generations.
The Taoiseach was replying to questions from Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who praised the work of historian, Catherine Corless, in bringing these cases to light. He condemned the treatment of single mothers, who broke societal rules on sexual behaviour, and the treatment of their children.
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