IRELAND
Irish Examiner
Saturday, June 03, 2017
By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter
Campaigners have called on the Government to start excavations at other mother and baby home sites after Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone said she is in favour of such a move.
The delay in moving the excavations to other sites has baffled campaigners given that ample evidence of large numbers of infant deaths having occurred in other institutions has been in State hands since 2011.
The Irish Examiner has previously revealed that the McAleese inquiry, the HSE, and two government departments were aware of the “disturbing” issue of infant deaths at Tuam as early as 2012.
The full details of almost 800 children who died in two of the country’s largest mother and baby homes — Bessborough, Cork City, and Castlepollard, Co Westmeath — were also given to the HSE by a religious order in 2011.
In a joint statement, the Adoption Rights Alliance and Justice For Magdalenes Research (JFMR) stressed that “Tuam is not an isolated case” and that it was aware of more than 180 institutions, agencies, and individuals involved with Ireland’s unmarried mothers and their children.
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