IRELAND
IrishCentral
Ciaran Tierney @IrishCentral April 30, 2017
I met an extraordinary man last week, only he doesn’t really believe he’s so extraordinary. Neither does his country. Its leaders need to meet him.
In recent months, he has found a voice he never realized he had. Now in his 60s, he has learned how to tell his story and speak out against injustice.
This man spent much of his childhood in the Tuam Mother and Baby Home, a place which is now notorious all over the world.
It took him an awfully long time to learn to love and take care of himself.
It’s not easy to care about yourself when you are told you are inferior to others.
When you walk to school in hobnail boots and you are forced to sit apart from the rest of the class.
When you are beaten for the most minor of transgressions, not given enough food, and branded with labels like “home baby” and, worse, “illegitimate”, because your mother committed an alleged terrible crime just by bringing you into the world.
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