IRELAND
The New York Times
November 5, 2017
[Note: Multiple letters to the editor follow the single letter excerpted below]
To the Editor:
Re “The Lost Children of Tuam,” by Dan Barry (Special Report, Oct. 29):
I grew up in the long shadow of one of Ireland’s most notorious institutions for boys, St. Conleth’s industrial school in County Offaly. The school’s reputation for harsh treatment was such that we were often threatened with being sent to St. Conleth’s if we didn’t behave.
The Irish writer John McGahern, himself a victim of the tyrannical Irish version of the Catholic Church, once said:
“The true history of the thirties, forties and fifties in this country has yet to be written. When it does, I believe it will be shown to have been a very dark time indeed, in which an insular church colluded with an insecure state to bring about a society that was often bigoted, intolerant, cowardly, philistine and spiritually crippled.”
Your report on St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, has borne out Mr. McGahern’s prescience. Dan Barry follows a long line of reporters and activists who in the late 1970s succeeded in forcing the Irish government to investigate the conditions of its more than 70 industrial schools, its orphanages and its Magdalene Laundries for “fallen women,” who took care of church linens, among other things.
The courage of reporters like Mr. Barry shines a bright light on how dark the dark times mentioned by Mr. McGahern really were.
TOM PHELAN, FREEPORT, N.Y.
The writer’s novel “Nailer” is set against the backdrop of Ireland’s abusive industrial schools and the church-state collusion that allowed them to flourish.
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