The horror of Tuam's missing babies is not diminished by misreported details

There was a vigil outside the Irish embassy in London on Thursday. It was for the 796 children who died in a former mother and baby home in Tuam, County Galway, which was operated by the Sisters of Bon Secours between 1925 and 1961. There are death records but no burial records for these children.
The location of their graves is a mystery, although it is probable that they are near the home, and that some of them, according to testimony from two local boys, who found skeletons in 1975 after disturbing a concrete slab, may be in what was once a septic tank in the grounds. When the story broke a month ago there was fury, and misreporting. All the missing children, it was said, were in the tank. This is supposition. No one knows precisely where they are. The site has not been searched.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/05/horror-tuam-missing-babies-not-diminished 

Claim of 800 children's remains buried at Irish home for unwed mothers

Historian who has traced death records of children who died at home in Tuam, County Galway, believes bodies were interred at unmarked site. mothers and their children.  The Catholic church in Ireland is facing fresh accusations of child neglect after a researcher found records for hundreds of children she believes are buried in unmarked graves at the site of a former home for unwed mothers.
The researcher, Catherine Corless, has said her discovery of child death records from the home run by Catholic nuns in Tuam, County Galway, along with a lack of burial records for them, suggested that many of the children's remains lie in the site of an old septic tank.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/04/claim-of-800-childrens-bodies-buried-at-irish-home-for-unwed-mothers 

Our horror at the mass baby grave in Ireland shows an instinctive religiosity

Why is it that we are more shocked by what happens to dead babies than to live ones? The story that almost 800 dead babies were buried in a disused sewage tank outside Tuam in rural Ireland turns out to be problematic.
It is certain that 796 babies did die under the care of nuns in a home for unmarried mothers there between 1925 and 1961 and that is in itself a shocking statistic. But what gave the story wings was the claim that their bodies had been dumped in a septic tank, widely attributed to Catherine Corless, the local historian who uncovered the scandal.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2014/jun/11/horror-mass-baby-grave-ireland-instinctive-religiosity 

Tell us the truth about the children in Galway's mass graves

Forget prayers. Only full disclosure by Ireland's Catholic church can begin to atone for the children who died in its care.  The bodies of 796 children, between the ages of two days and nine years old, are believed to have been buried in a disused sewage tank in Tuam, County Galway. They died between 1925 and 1961 in a mother and baby home under the care of the Bon Secours nuns.
Locals have known about the grave since 1975, when two little boys, playing, broke apart the concrete slab covering it and discovered a tomb filled with small skeletons. A parish priest said prayers at the site, and it was sealed once more, the number of bodies below unknown, their names forgotten.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/04/children-galway-mass-graves-ireland-catholic-church 

The mother behind the Galway children's mass grave story: 'I want to know who's down there'

It was amateur historian Catherine Corless's painstaking research that brought news of the children's mass grave in Tuam to the world's attention. She tells how her search for the truth turned her life upside-down 
Catherine Corless spent eight months trying unsuccessfully to get people to pay attention to the research she was doing on an institution for unmarried mothers in Tuam, the Galway town where she grew up.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/13/mother-behind-galway-childrens-mass-grave-story 

The Catholic Cure for Poverty

Through the twentieth century, Irish elites treated poverty as a moral failing — and built a brutal carceral state to correct it.  Our new issue, “Between the Risings,” is out now. To celebrate its release, international subscriptions are $25 off, and limited prints of our Easter 1916 cover are available.

Catherine Corless, a retired secretary turned amateur historian, worked tirelessly in early 2014 to get local officials, newspapers, and radio stations in Tuam, Ireland to care about her discovery.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/05/catholic-church-ireland-magdalene-laundries-mother-baby-homes/

Call over submissions on Mother and Baby Homes

Advocacy groups assisting people affected by Ireland's treatment of unmarried mothers and their children have urged the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes to be proactive in inviting submissions to its key investigation committee.
Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) and the Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) say they have discovered that people who thought they had made a submission for the purpose of the commission's investigation had in fact just met with the body's confidential committee.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0728/805544-mother-and-baby-homes-commission/ 

Justice for Magdalenes Research and Adoption Rights

Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) and Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) are concerned that witnesses who have given evidence to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes are not aware of the Commission’s procedures, in particular, that the Commission has two separate Committees.

http://clannproject.org/2016/07/28/justice-for-magdalenes-research-and-adoption-rights-alliance-joint-statement-on-publication-of-mother-and-baby-homes-commission-of-investigation-interim-report/ 

The abused - in their own words

– Stripped naked by a nun and beaten with a stick and given no supper and humiliated.... I saw this... and just broke down... that is what the nuns use to do to me most nights... but they use to tie me... to both ends of the bed as well... by my hand and feet... for no reason at all... just for being born... God this kills me...  Ann

 =============================

The voices of the abused emerge raw and bleak from pages 113 to 119 of Volume V of the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse. They told their stories to an interviewing team. In an introductory note to the section, the team acknowledged their courage: “We were deeply moved, inspired and humbled by our contact with you. Although we spent only a few hours with you, meeting you and listening to your stories was a moving and enriching experience for all of us. We felt privileged and honoured that you trusted us with such intensely personal and private experiences. . .”

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/the-abused-in-their-own-words-1.769156

Diocese names priests, sisters, staff accused of sexual abuse

HELENA -- The Diocese of Helena posted an online list Wednesday of every employee accused of sexually abusing a minor while working there.

The list includes priests and nuns who once worked in Butte, Anaconda, Deer Lodge, Philipsburg, Drummond and Whitehall, among other towns.  The list dates back to the 1930s and includes the names of 80 priests, Ursuline Sisters, lay workers and others. A settlement between the Diocese and hundreds of victims requires that the names be posted and remain pinned to the Diocese homepage for the next decade.

http://missoulian.com/butte/news/local/diocese-names-priests-sisters-staff-accused-of-sexual-abuse/article_48779538-d563-568d-81a7-e8a0ace013b3.html 

Lawsuit filed alleging sexual abuse by nuns at St. Ignatius Mission

Nuns who taught decades ago at the St. Ignatius Mission's Ursuline Academy on the Flathead Indian Reservation came under fire for sexually abusing the children under their care in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Catholic Diocese of Helena.

The suit, filed on behalf of 45 people who were pupils at the mission's boarding and day school in the 1940s through the early 1970s, also names six Roman Catholic priests and one brother, and includes allegations of abuse at St. Mary's Catholic School in Helena.
 

 http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/lawsuit-filed-alleging-sexual-abuse-by-nuns-at-st-ignatius/article_ad8e68aa-e93f-11e0-a029-001cc4c03286.html

Treatment of children by nuns in industrial school 'intolerable'

DAMNING letters from the Department of Education setting out the serious neglect of children at Newtownforbes industrial school, Co Longford, in the early 1940s, were presented to the Commission on Child Abuse yesterday.

The letters catalogued attempts by the Department to improve conditions at the school up to the mid-1940s, when their efforts began to bear fruit.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/treatment-of-children-by-nuns-in-industrial-school-intolerable-26003655.html 

Survivors of mother and baby homes to picket Dáil today

The inquiry into mother and baby homes is to be picketed at 1.30pm today in Dublin by groups excluded from the investigation.
The Government has selected 14 individual institutions to be examined as part of the current inquiry. The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors (CMABS) said this means an estimated two-thirds of victims will be potentially excluded.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/survivors-of-mother-and-baby-homes-to-picket-dail-today-745432.html 

Mother and Baby Homes commission granted extension to finish reports

The Commission which is investigating Mother and Baby Homes has been granted an extension of time to complete its three reports. The Cabinet, which granted the extension, said all reports will not now be completed by February 2018.
The extension is to accommodate” the large number of witnesses coming forward,” said a spokesman. However, the delay will disappoint many women who, because of their age, were hoping for a speedy conclusion to the proceedings.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/mother-and-baby-homes-commission-granted-extension-to-finish-reports-34917709.html 

Commission investigating Mother and Baby Homes will not examine illegal adoptions

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes will not be asked to examine illegal adoptions that took place outside such institutions.
Minister for Children Katherine Zappone said the plight of the dwindling number of survivors of the Protestant-run Bethany Home was one reason she had asked the commission to advise on whether the investigation's scope should be widened.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0727/805300-mother-and-baby-homes/ 

Mother and baby home survivors say their community is "torn in half" over inquiry terms

MOTHER AND BABY home survivors are to protest against the government’s commission of inquiry into the homes today.
The survivors are all part of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors (CMABS), and they will be lodging a formal complaint with the government over the fact some homes are not included in the inquiry.

http://www.thejournal.ie/mother-baby-home-survivors-protest-2884883-Jul2016/

Survivors of mother and baby homes to picket Dáil today

The inquiry into mother and baby homes is to be picketed at 1.30pm today in Dublin by groups excluded from the investigation.
The Government has selected 14 individual institutions to be examined as part of the current inquiry. The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors (CMABS) said this means an estimated two-thirds of victims will be potentially excluded.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/survivors-of-mother-and-baby-homes-to-picket-dail-today-745432.html

Beat Me Starve Me Abuse Me! And still you want to Control Me

Beat Me Starve Me Abuse Me! And still you want to Control Me: Irish Victim Of State-Run Catholic Institutes Ignored By Caranua Board.

Acting as a voice for the abused, the people who suffered a series of horrific abuses at the hands of the Irish state run catholic institutes of Ireland. On bahalf of one of the survivors, a man named Micheal forwarded his unanswered correspondence to the Caranua board, onto me for disclosure to the public. Before you is an unedited copy of his communication with Caranua. Let it be known, Caranua receives its funding from the Church.

https://saucytruths.blogspot.co.nz/2016/07/beat-me-starve-me-abuse-me-and-still.html?m=1 

Helping Ireland’s unmarried mothers tell their stories

Rod Baker hopes that a new pro bono initiative supporting those affected by the Irish Mother and Baby Homes will allow for a comprehensive investigation of a painful chapter in the country's history.
For many people, it was the hit film Philomena that brought the Irish Mother and Baby Homes to their attention. However, it was the discovery of the bodies of hundreds of babies in a septic tank at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, which last year prompted the Irish government to establish a Commission of Investigation into the operation of the Mother and Baby Homes.

http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/comment/helping-ireland%E2%80%99s-unmarried-mothers-tell-their-stories 

The Magdalenes

This is how it was in their orphanages... but much worst for us little children... they abused us with power and control... some of us were called the devil's children... because we had no one looking out for us... and when ever i went to the police station... they always took me back to the orphanages... the nuns would put my over the bed that night again... the punishment became the norm for me... because it happened every day and night... from 5 to 10years old... I had to wear a sack for a dress... which they cut holes in it for my head and arms... on it was written "New Zealand Sugar Refinery."...  Ann

========================================

Imagine if you were abducted and held prisoner against your will: if your possessions were taken, your hair was cut; you were forced to wear a uniform and answer to a new name. For women like Gabrielle O’Gorman who were sent to the Magdalene Institutions in Ireland, this was a reality. Gabrielle tells her story, and revisits the now-derelict Institution she was sent to as a teenager.
This film, made by Nick Carew, was funded by the University of Kent, and completed with the help of the Women's Studies Centre at University College Dublin who led an Irish Research Council project on the Magdalene Institutions.

https://www.truetube.co.uk/film/magdalenes 

Young mums denied painkillers to make them 'suffer for their sins'

Most of the girls and women were RAPED... just like my mother was... they were all innocent of their crimes... which the catholic church used...so as to abused them night and day... then stole their babies away from the mothers... then sold most of the babies to the highest bidder... Ann

 =================================

THEY were made to scrub the hard, cold floors on their knees with a toothbrush, and to cut the huge lawns with only a scissors.
Mothers at the Bessborough mother-and-baby home in Co Cork, privately referred to as "a secret penitential jail", were refused all social contact with the outside world, and not allowed to even speak with each other. Former inmates believe up to 3,000 children are buried in unmarked graves at the country's largest mother and baby home.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/young-mums-denied-painkillers-to-make-them-suffer-for-their-sins-30337250.html

Irish Court ‘clears way’ for out of time abuse claims

Court finds for middle aged abuse survivor who was too dissolute to apply by the deadline.  Ireland’s Court of Appeal last week potentially cleared the way for thousands of people in this country who attended the country’s notorious industrial schools but missed the deadline for compensation from the Residential Institutions Redress Board.

Mr Justice Gerard Hogan, on behalf of the three-judge Appeal Court, quashed a High Court decision agreeing with the Redress Board that a 58-year old man had applied too late under the compensation scheme. His claim can now be reconsidered.

http://www.theirishworld.com/irish-court-clears-way-for-out-of-time-abuse-claims/ 

Free legal assistance offered to survivors of Ireland's mother and baby homes

A new initiative will provide free legal aid to women who lived in mother and baby homes in Ireland between 1922 and 1998. The legal help will assist women in drafting witness statements to give to a commission investigating how women and children were treated at the homes.

The project has been set up by Justice for Magdalenes Research and the Adoption Rights Alliance, RTE reports. Known as Clann: Ireland’s Unmarried Mothers and their Children: Gathering the Data, the project has been endorsed by Philomena Lee and her daughter Jane Libberton.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Free-legal-assistance-offered-to-survivors-of-Irelands-mother-and-baby-homes.html 

Inventory of document links for religious orders' dispute

Please feel free to browse this inventory of links to letters between the 18 religious orders covered under the Indemnity Deal and the Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn.

The correspondence documents the negotiations that took place in 2012 and 2013. The Irish Government had been looking to get the orders to agree to cover 50% of the €1.5bn child abuse redress bill.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yJUAQ42DenC1gk7UvuAI_Hc6l13r1tfMXbC3Rmu7lDY/edit?pref=2&pli=1 

Researcher probes Canadian links to abuse at Magdalene laundries

Purported safe havens for ‘fallen women’ were abused—including in in Canada.  They were called fallen women, and through much of the last two centuries they toiled in church-run Magdalene laundries as penance for often-petty crimes, “loose morals” or for having no place to go.
Former workers in several countries, including Canada, say they endured long days of enforced silent labour for little or no pay. Some say they were physically and sexually abused, and told over and over again that they were worthless sinners.

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/researcher-probes-canadian-links-to-abuse-at-magdalene-laundries/ 

Canada should apologize for Magdalene laundries, like Ireland, academic says

Former workers in Magdalene laundries in several countries, including Canada, say they endured abuse and enforced, silent labour for little to no pay.

ST. JOHN’S, N.L.—They were called fallen women, and through much of the last two centuries they toiled in church-run Magdalene laundries as penance for often-petty crimes, “loose morals” or for having no place to go.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/07/17/canada-should-apologize-for-magdalene-laundries-like-ireland-academic-says.html 

Nuns 'waited' years to inquire about girl

When the Catholic Church became aware it had a major problem with pedophilia, nuns were told to take great legal care when offering to help a family.
It took more than six years for an order of nuns to respond to a complaint a 13-year-old disabled girl had been abused in their care, an inquiry has been told.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/07/11/nuns-waited-years-inquire-about-girl?cx_navSource=related-side-cx#cxrecs_s 

Disability support services give evidence to abuse Royal Commission

The Mater Dei School in New South Wales was supposed to be a safe place for students with disabilities.
But for some children boarding at the school in the 1990s, it was far from secure. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard the case of a 13 year-old female student with intellectual disabilities who was allegedly raped by her male carer.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/07/11/disability-support-services-give-evidence-abuse-royal-commission?cx_navSource=related-side-cx#cxrecs_s 

Girl, 13, with the mental capacity of a three-year-old returned home with an injured rectum after she was 'abused by the supervisor of cottage for disabled children'

An intellectually disabled girl, 13, who had the mental capacity of a three to five-year-old, was allegedly abused by her live-in cottage supervisor who then fled the country, an inquiry has heard. 

After attending Camden's Catholic Mater Dei School in south-west Sydney for about six-months, the girl's mother noticed a change in her daughter when she picked her up from the weekday live-in college on Fridays. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3684305/Intellectually-disabled-girl-13-allegedly-abused-supervisor-live-cottage.html 

Pervert at Catholic school targeted disabled children

A PAEDOPHILE who preyed on a teenage girl at a Sydney Catholic boarding school could “still be out there assaulting other children”, an anguished mother told the sex abuse royal commission yesterday.

The man, who worked as a “houseparent” at a residential cottage of the Mater Dei Catholic school at Camden, had fled to England “under a cloud” in July 1991 and never returned, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/child-abuse-spotlight-on-good-samaritan-nuns/news-story/6ba937102c9d4b0c369a2671d7fef71f 

Forced to sleep next to a dead nun: Public inquiry hears of horrific abuse suffered by children in Jersey care homes

A young girl being forced to sleep next to a dead nun is just one of the cruel punishments children were subjected to at care homes across Jersey, a public inquiry has heard.
At one home, Haut de la Garenne, staff have been accused of dragging boys from their beds late at night to abuse them among other crimes. Victims of the abuse told of other horrors they faced at the hands of care home workers in Jersey as part of an inquiry that is dealing with homes and foster care throughout the island, including Haut de la Garenne – dubbed the Jersery Horror Home.

http://metro.co.uk/2014/09/11/forced-to-sleep-next-to-a-dead-nun-inquiry-hears-of-horrific-abuse-suffered-by-children-in-jersey-care-home-4865150/ 

US priests reportedly behind Vatican crackdown on nuns

A Vatican crackdown launched last month on the largest leadership organization for U.S. nuns reportedly was spurred on by American Catholic officials worried the nuns aren't vocal enough on conservative social issues.
On April 18, after a three-year investigation, the Vatican’s doctrine watchdog appointed Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle to oversee the nuns' organization and reform its programs to adhere more closely to "the teachings and discipline of the Church."

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/10/11597887-us-priests-reportedly-behind-vatican-crackdown-on-nuns?lite

How I helped Philomena track down her son sold by cruel nuns:

How I helped Philomena track down her son sold by cruel nuns: It's the film about a toddler torn from his mother that is reducing grown men to tears... but the REAL story will haunt you forever.

I first heard of Philomena Lee at a New Year’s party in 2004, when her daughter Jane approached me to ask for help.  She told me her mother had just revealed a shocking secret – that she, Jane, had a long-lost brother.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2495391/How-I-helped-Philomena-track-son-sold-cruel-nuns-Its-film-toddler-torn-mother-reducing-grown-men-tears--REAL-story-haunt-forever.html 

Insight: Victim feels let down by child abuse inquiry

When Helen Holland talks about the abuse she suffered at the hands of nuns and priests at Nazareth House in Kilmarnock it is as if she has been transported back into her childhood.
She may be sitting serenely in her home in Dunbartonshire – her long hair twisted in a Rapunzel coil, her two Yorkshire Terriers dozing in her lap – but the pain of what happened to her and the way it made her feel – unwanted, unloved, unworthy – has not been blunted by the passage of time.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/insight-victim-feels-let-down-by-child-abuse-inquiry-1-4173763 

Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: Questions remain as public hearings end

Public hearings at the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry have ended after two and a half years.

The chairman of the inquiry, Sir Anthony Hart, is due to hand over his report to Stormont by next January.  The hundreds of testimonies of the past two and a half years at the inquiry have changed a chapter in the history of Northern Ireland society.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-36747652?post_id=10204672433356106_10207066760532789#_=_ 

NUN ABUSE: A Survivor’s Message for the Vatican

I remembered back to this past spring. I’d just hung up the phone. It was late and the conversation with yet another clergy abuse survivor had zapped my strength and spirit as they’d recounted to me the horrors of their youth. I looked to the clock and knew I should be heading to bed because tomorrow was Easter. Easter. The celebratory feast day that millions of Catholics would spend rejoicing and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.

I also knew that the survivor I’d just spoken with would not be attending Church tomorrow; instead the victim of clergy abuse would struggle to get out of bed and spend most of the day weeping ...

Just as I know; Jesus weeps.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-michele-richardson/apology-and-accountabilit_b_721489.html

Hogan Lovells works pro bono in Irish Mother and Baby Homes investigation

Independent commission to look into the treatment of unmarried mothers and infant mortality International firm Hogan Lovells is to provide pro bono support to mothers and adopted people giving evidence to an independent investigation into Irish Mother and Baby Homes.
Working in collaboration with the Adoption Rights Alliance (ARA) and Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR), Hogan Lovells lawyers will assist in the preparation of witness statements to be sent to Ireland's Commission of Investigation.

http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/news/family/children/26792/hogan-lovells-works-pro-bono-irish-mother-and-baby-homes-investigation

Raftery helped to lift lid on abuse

FEARLESS” is one word that sums up the approach of the late Mary Raftery, the woman who shone a light on so many dark corners of Irish society, including the scandal of the Magdalene Laundries.
Add to that the word “effective” and you will get a notion of the legacy she left behind when she died in January of last year at the age of 54.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/raftery-helped-to-lift-lid-on-abuse-221771.html 

Magdalene Laundries in Ireland

The Magdalene Laundries in Ireland, also known as Magdalene asylums, were institutions, generally run by Roman Catholics, that operated from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. They were run ostensibly to house "fallen women". An estimated 30,000 women were confined in these institutions in Ireland. In 1993, a mass grave containing 155 corpses was uncovered in the convent grounds of one of the laundries.^[1] This led to media revelations about the operations of the secretive institutions. A formal state apology was issued in 2013, and a £50 million compensation scheme for survivors was set up, to which the Catholic Church has refused to contribute.<sup>[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Laundries_in_Ireland</sup> 

Before It’s Too Late: Local Prof Speaks to Survivors of Magdalene Laundries

A sociology professor with Memorial University Grenfell Campus is researching a shocking and painful part of recent history which few people are even aware of; the Magdalene Laundries.
The laundries started out as an attempt by the Roman Catholic church to reform so-called wayward and incorrigible women. They were originally intended as a short-term experience to teach women a trade and change their path in life.

http://vocm.com/news/before-its-too-late-local-prof-speaks-to-survivors-of-magdalene-laundries/ 

Bessborough Mother and Baby Home: It’s time these women’s voices are finally heard

A previously unpublished report by the HSE in 2012 examined Bessborough’s own records. The in-depth findings and conclusions are damning. Conall Ó Fátharta reports FOR years, places like Bessborough Mother and Baby Home were spoken of in hushed tones.
For generations of Irish people, they were places where thousands of women and girls were sent when they had “a problem”. They went in pregnant and came out alone, some after spending years locked away.  Some left only to be moved to other institutions and Magdalene laundries. Most were never the same. Their voices were never heard.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/special-investigation-bessborough-mother-and-baby-home-its-time-these-womens-voices-are-finally-heard-334069.html 

Irish campaigner releases powerful video calling the nation to action

Inspired by the 1916 Centenary, Ruairí - who is originally from Cavan - enlisted the help of filmmaker Myles O’Reilly to make the visually stunning clip that explores Ireland’s past and present, our faults and our strengths - and our nation’s potential for greatness.
Musician Colm Mac Con Iomaire provided a fittingly soaring score to accompany Ruairi’s call to action which he says started out as a personal reflection, "a way of trying to capture how I feel about the state of the nation and our role as citizens".

http://www.irishexaminer.com/examviral/real-life/irish-campaigner-releases-powerful-video-calling-the-nation-to-action-394295.html 

Ireland’s generation of stolen children deserve to know who they are

All of us stolen babies of the catholic church orphanages worldwide... need to know our birth rights... we were called orphans from the time we could walk and talk... but we were not orphans... we were stolen from our mother's arms... by St. Vincent De' Paul... who were working for the catholic church... our mother had no say... they could not fight the catholic church alone... there neesd to be an apology... from the catholic church worldwide... to us men and women... who were stolen from our mothers... I hear and see about the mothers... but what about us babies who were stolen right out of our mother's arms... there is so much more I want to say... sorry but I can not... it is too upsetting for me...  Ann

 ============================

IF we did not deprive them of life, we deprived them of their identity. That is the hard truth about our relationship with “illegitimate” children which Stephen Frears’s film Philomena makes us face.
Some years we killed half of the “illegitimate” babies we got our hands on. In 1930, the year the Sean Ross Mother and Baby Home opened in Roscrea, 60 babies died out of a total of 120. That’s an infant mortality rate of 50%, more than four times higher than in the general population.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/victoria-white/irelands-generation-of-stolen-children-deserve-to-know-who-they-are-248731.html

Ireland’s generation of stolen children deserve to know who they are

IF we did not deprive them of life, we deprived them of their identity. That is the hard truth about our relationship with “illegitimate” children which Stephen Frears’s film Philomena makes us face.
Some years we killed half of the “illegitimate” babies we got our hands on. In 1930, the year the Sean Ross Mother and Baby Home opened in Roscrea, 60 babies died out of a total of 120. That’s an infant mortality rate of 50%, more than four times higher than in the general population. 

http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/columnists/victoria-white/irelands-generation-of-stolen-children-deserve-to-know-who-they-are-248731.html

'What happened is horrific’

Survivors of Magdalene Laundries deserve peace after years of suffering. It’s often gut-wrenching, but Dr. Rie Croll says there’s a sense of “urgency” in her research aimed at collecting stories of women forcibly confined in female-only laundries and reformatories before “they are forever lost to history.” 

Her current research brings together stories of women from Ireland, Canada and Australia who spent time in institutions known as Magdalene Laundries. Many of these facilities were run by various orders of Roman Catholic nuns. The laundries operated from as early as the 18th Century before the last one closed in Dublin, Ireland 20 years ago.

http://www.thewesternstar.com/Living/2016-07-04/article-4576383/What-happened-is-horrific%26rsquo%3B/1