Man seeks information about fate of baby sister at Tuam home

Hugh Court directs Tusla to ask religious order if it has burial records for hundreds of children.  An elderly man with cancer has taken High Court action urgently seeking information about the fate of the infant sister he has “never known” after she went into a mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

Peter Mulryan claims Tusla, the Child and Family Agency has a duty to forensically examine what it describes as an “enormous” quantity of documents in its possession related to the home, but has not done that.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/man-seeks-information-about-fate-of-baby-sister-at-tuam-home-1.2974089 

Mother and Baby Homes commission spent €21k on carpet

The details are contained in the purchase orders for €20,000 or above made by the DCYA in the first three months of 2015. The department paid out €21,948 to Carpet Express Ltd to provide carpet for the Mother and Baby Homes Commission on Lower Baggot St in Dublin.
It spent a further €45,928 on the “supply, delivery, and installation of office furniture” for the Commission. Another €26,575 was spent on the “supply, delivery, and installation of drawer safes” at the offices of the inquiry, while €42,657 went on the “purchase, installation, and configuration of unified communications system”. This spend also included wifi.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/mother-and-baby-homes-commission-spent-21k-on-carpet-443339.html 

Closing date looms for people to speak to Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes – and Thomastown County Home

The closing date for people who were residents or workers in – or have specific knowledge of – the Thomastown County Home in County Kilkenny, to speak to a confidential Commission of Investigation is March 1.
The Commission of Investigation was established to investigate the experiences of mothers and children in 14 Mother and Baby Homes and a number of County Homes between 1922 and 1998, including the Thomastown County Home, St Columba's Hospital.

http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/news/home/236018/closing-date-looms-for-people-to-speak-to-commission-of-investigation-into-mother-and-baby-homes-and-thomastown-county-hospital.html 

Father Delaney Collection: Magdalene Laundry

One of the most notable of Father Delaney’s films was made on the grounds of The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity Convent  – a convent which housed a Magdalene Laundry – which closed its doors in 1999.
In the film we see the nuns and residents playing games in the garden, as well as performing in a play and dancing. Though the film is short but is the most extensive footage that is known to have been filmed inside a Magdalene Institution. The film is invaluable for the information it provides on the residents. some of whom were classed as “fallen“ women,  held here against their will as punishment for some perceived misdemeanour such as sexual  promiscuity or extra-marital pregnancy.  The images show what the women wore, how they played, how they relate to each other, the nuns and to the filmmaker, a priest.

http://ifiplayer.ie/father-delaney-collection-magdalene-laundry/ 

Second excavation gets underway into alleged mass grave at Mother and Baby home

A SECOND EXCAVATION is underway at the site of a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway. The first excavation took place late last year, following allegations about the deaths of 800 babies, and the manner in which they were buried, at the home came to light nearly three years ago. 
Both of these tests have been ordered by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, which was tasked with investigating these allegations of mass graves at the site in Tuam.

http://www.thejournal.ie/excavation-mother-baby-3228973-Feb2017/?utm_source=facebook_short 

We need to talk about nuns, Katherine

A letter to the Minister with responsibility for the Tuam Babies
A few weeks ago, I was happy to hear an excavation was starting at the site of the Mother & Baby Home in Tuam. Then I saw where the hoarding went up. I have information that suggests they’re digging in the wrong place and I know the Commission of Enquiry into Mother & Baby Homes has that information too.
It’s hard to know how to react. I struggled with feelings of powerlessness and despair. Is the hoarding in the wrong place accidentally or on purpose? Whose interests does it serve? In a country that ‘apologises’ to Magdalene women, then tries to swindle them out of the medical care they were promised, the line between conspiracy and cock up is very hard to find. Actually, there’s no line between conspiracy and cock up. They are conjoined twins and corruption is a mixture of the two.

http://izzykamikaze.tumblr.com/post/151947501021/we-need-to-talk-about-nuns-katherine

Catholic nuns at children’s home in north were ‘sadistic bullies’ claims former resident

Some Catholic nuns at a children's home in Northern Ireland were sadistic bullies, a former resident has claimed. A "bleak, harsh and cruel" atmosphere was described by alleged victims at two properties in Belfast run by the Sisters of Nazareth Order, a lawyer told a public inquiry.
More than 100 witnesses from Nazareth House and Nazareth Lodge have come forward to the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry, headed by a former judge. Thirteen institutions are being considered by the inquiry panel, which is tasked with making recommendations to Stormont ministers on issues such as compensating alleged victims.

http://www.sundayworld.com/news/catholic-nuns-at-children-s-home-in-north-were-sadistic-bullies-clai 

YEARS OF TORMENT

AS one woman prepares to sue an order of nuns she says abused her, a Merseyside family speaks to Mary Murtagh about their own traumatic childhood.  IT WAS a childhood secret the Maher family thought they would take to their grave. 

It is almost 50 years since Ray Maher and his sisters Pat, Sheila and Eileen were left motherless and sent to Nazareth House, Crosby. Their brutal treatment there, at the hands of the Poor Sisters of Nazareth, is something the siblings have never spoken about -- until now.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/YEARS+OF+TORMENT%3B+AS+one+woman+prepares+to+sue+an+order+of+nuns+she...-a0121082514

Nuns Were Unwilling or Unable to Believe Children Who Were Abused - Report

ONE of the worst child abusers in the history of the State was given a reference for a job by the head nun at St Joseph's orphanage in Kilkenny, despite being told he had been "at" children and despite having personal reservations about the paedophile who served a 10- year jail sentence for sex abuse.
David Murray was only investigated in 1995 by a Garda Sergeant, stationed at Kilkenny Garda Station. He began an investigation into allegations of sexual and physical abuse at St Joseph's School in Kilkenny.  In the course of his enquiries, he heard allegations of severe sexual abuse, including buggery, and of physical abuse by David Murray and Myles Brady who had been employed at St Joseph's during the 1970s. The first of these allegations involved David Murray, who was employed in St Joseph's from 1972 until 1976, when he was summarily removed by the Resident Manager following complaints by boys.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2009/05_06/2009_05_29_KilkennyPeople_NunsWere.htm 

Nuns on the Run from the Truth

Nuns on the Run from the Truth...  Why Won't the Leadership of America's Nuns Meet with the Survivors of Sexual Abuse by Nuns, and Hear Their Stories?... the world need to hear and believe... about the nuns who raped innocent children worldwide...  Ann

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

"This past week, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents 95 percent of the orders of Catholic sisters in the U.S., held its annual meeting in New Orleans. The main topic on the agenda was the Vatican's current investigation of the doctrinal deviations they believe may be rampant among the sisters who were freed of strict control in dress and living arrangements following the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960s.

Nuns, it seems, are no longer as obedient as the Vatican would like. One sister I know is a clinic escort at her local reproductive health clinic; others are active in gay and lesbian ministries and one, close to 90, has been a leader in the movement for sex worker rights. They fasted for the Equal Rights Amendment, spoke out in favor of women priests and choice, marched with Martin Luther King, and thought John Paul II was a disaster.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2009/07_08/2009_08_17_Kissling_NunsOn.htm 

Paedophile priest Brendan Smyth 'abused boys at two care homes run by nuns', inquiry hears

The homes in Northern Ireland were run by the Sisters of Nazareth and the inquiry heard one witness describe the nuns as “sadistic and bullies” Paedophile priest Brendan Smyth abused boys at two care homes run by nuns, an inquiry heard Monday.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry was told today that a religious order accepts that the notorious cleric abused children in their care. The inquiry’s barrister, Christine Smith QC, said witnesses have alleged they were abused by Smyth in two care homes, Narareth House and Nazareth Lodge, in south and east Belfast.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2015/01_02/2015_01_05_Maurice_Mirror_Paedophile_Smyth.htm 

Lawsuit Against 11 Nuns Who Sexually Abused At Least 95 Children

A lawsuit that is scheduled for trial later this year claims 11 Catholic nuns sexually abused 95 children at day schools and residential schools run by the Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province. The suit was filed in 2011 in Lewis and Clark County in Montana. Not only does the lawsuit list 95 plaintiffs, but it also includes placeholders for as many as 105 potential victims.
The trial is expected to begin on December 1, which is when the plaintiffs’ attorneys will start trying to prove the 11 accused, who served at St Ignatius Mission School from the 1940s through 1970s, abused students belonging to the Flathead Indian Reservation, emotionally, physically and even sexually.

http://www.atheistrepublic.com/news/lawsuit-against-11-nuns-who-sexually-abused-least-95-children 

Suit: Nuns abused school for deaf students

Nine former students at a Roman Catholic school for the deaf filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging they were raped, beaten and tormented decades ago by the nuns who ran the place.

They accused at least 14 nuns in the lawsuit. Also accused were a priest and a male athletic instructor at the now-defunct Boston School for the Deaf, as well as a former top official of the Boston Archdiocese, according to their lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian.

http://www.goupstate.com/news/20040512/suit-nuns-abused-school-for-deaf-students

The case is the first to allege widespread abuse by nuns in the Boston area since the sex scandal that engulfed the archdiocese began in 2002.

Deaf Children abused by priests, nuns & staff at St. Rita School (Catholic Residential School in Cincinnati)

Over 350 children have been abused at St Rita School for deaf and amongst the criminal pedophile priests Father Paul Klenke - who died in 1983. The victim in this video speaks out against the fact that this abusive priest molested her and her late brother. She states all the boys were innocent, and wishes they were strong enough to tell their story. She further discloses how she informed Sister Jane Bernadette about the abuse she had suffered at the hands of the pedophile priests - stating that the nun had heard her babble off..and she took her advice.....the question is: WHY DID THIS CRIMINAL NUN ALSO NOT REPORT THIS CRIME IF SHE IS SUPPOSEDLY THERE TO PROTECT THE CHILDREN?

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2078664/pg1

Church does not put victims first

Victims are still not front and centre of the Catholic Church's response to widespread child sexual abuse, a victims' advocate says.
The leaders of the Catholic Church in Australia have to be held to account when they front the child sex abuse royal commission next week, In Good Faith Foundation chief executive Helen Last says.  Victims have had enough of apologies, she said.

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/national/2017/02/18/church-does-not-put-victims-first--advocate.html 

In Spain, A Criminal Ring Of Nuns And Doctors Stole Hundreds Of Thousands Of Babies

Throughout much of 20th century Spain, a criminal network of doctors and nuns stole anywhere from 40,000 to 300,000 babies from their mothers at birth, constituting one of the most horrific yet least known events of the Franco dictatorship.

General Francisco Franco came to power in 1939, after winning a civil war that had bathed the country in blood for three years. In the four decades that followed — and up to his death in 1975 — Spain stayed mostly closed to the outside world, delaying industrial progress and punishing those who fought on the losing side of the conflict. It was during those years when it is believed that tens of thousands of infants born to “undesirable” families started disappearing from their mothers’ hands.  

http://all-that-is-interesting.com/stolen-babies-spain

Mexican woman claims she was one of 30,000 babies stolen from Spain

A woman has filed a complaint with prosecutors in Mexico, claiming that she was stolen as a baby in Spain during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and handed over to a well-heeled Mexican family who raised her as their own.
Ligia Ceballos Franco said on Thursday that she may be among an estimated 30,000 babies who were taken from their real parents under the Franco dictatorship from 1938 to 1975.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/16/mexican-woman-claims-she-was-one-of-30000-babies-stolen-from-spain 

Survivors fight for the truth of St. Anne’s

Survivors of St. Anne’s Residential School were in provincial court in Toronto on Dec. 17 for the first day of a two-day hearing. They want the federal government to hand over documents from a five-year investigation conducted by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
The investigation, begun in 1994, was the result of complaints from former students of physical and sexual abuse by priests, nuns and other Catholic caregivers at the school. St. Anne’s operated in Fort Albany, Ont. for more than 70 years, taking children from the James Bay area.

http://www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/survivors-fight-truth-st-anne%E2%80%99s 

Abuse report - a catalogue of horror

Children lived in ‘daily terror’ of being beaten over more than five decades in State-run institutions, and sexual abuse was widespread, according to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report, which was released today. The report outlines in harrowing detail the emotional, physical and sexual abuse inflicted on young people who attended schools and institutions from 1940 onwards. More than 100 institutions and religious orders, including the Sisters of Mercy, the Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers, were investigated over the last decade.

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=15548 

Thai Nun - Trafficking + Abusing kids from Burma + 54 kids kidnapped

Nun might be good 10 years ago, but she changed and become corrupted over the year probably from greed. She makes money from donors She lies to all donors nobody helps her. We ,met another donor on 2010 Mar 27 and get the same story.
We realized why she was so upset this time after this group of kids escaped and yet she wasnt in 2008 with the other group. Kids escaped from her place on 2009 Dec 28. and on 2010 Jan 04 a group of donor supposed to visit to cook for 94 kids. She has difficulty to explain the disappearing of the 54. She spreads the rumor kids have been stolen (kidnapped) from her center by the teacher.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZjEldiEUPo 

Ex-nun Nora Wall settles damages case for miscarriage of justice

In 1999 former Sisters of Mercy nun became first woman convicted of rape in Ireland.  A six-year legal battle by former nun Nora Wall for damages from the State – after her wrongful conviction for the rape of a young girl was certified a miscarriage of justice – has been settled at the High Court.

While no settlement figure was disclosed, it is understood Ms Wall will receive more than €500,000.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/ex-nun-nora-wall-settles-damages-case-for-miscarriage-of-justice-1.2645707 

New plan on religion and ethics to appease Church

Integrating the teaching of world religions and ethics into primary schools is now being explored after a Catholic backlash against introducing it as a stand-alone subject.

The plan is to weave such teaching and learning into a restructured primary curriculum, which the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) is currently working on.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/new-plan-on-religion-and-ethics-to-appease-church-35452729.html

Further excavation at former Tuam Home site

Further excavation works are continuing at the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam.
The excavation of the Memorial Garden off the Dublin Road in Tuam began in late January and is expected to last up to three weeks. The works are being conducted by a specialist team of archaeologists lead by a Forensic Archaeologist, with the co-operation of An Garda Síochána.

http://www.galwayindependent.com/news/topics/articles/2017/02/15/4134952-further-excavation-at-former-tuam-home-site/ 

NAZARETH NUNS ABUSED US ALL; Family to sue the Poor Sisters who are worth pounds 154m.

THEY should have been safe - yet they were innocents who became victims through no fault of their own.  Their mother was dead, their father unable to look after them, and the family turned to nuns for help.  The McGuigans - three brothers and three sisters - spoke yesterday of their trust in the Poor Sisters of Nazareth.

But they claim that trust was exploited in the most wicked way when they were systematically abused by nuns and sexually molested by other carers.  Sadly, their harrowing story isn't unique. Over the past few weeks hundreds of people who grew up in four Nazareth Children's homes - in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Lasswade and Kilmarnock - have come forward to talk about their own experiences.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/NAZARETH+NUNS+ABUSED+US+ALL%3B+Family+to+sue+the+Poor+Sisters+who+are...-a060691760 

WE WANT JUSTICE FOR ALL CHILDREN ABUSED BY NUNS;

 EXCLUSIVE: VICTIMS JOIN FORCES IN BID TO MAKE THE GUILTY PAY FOR YEARS OF CRUELTY. TWO women who suffered a reign of terror at the hands of nuns joined forces yesterday to form an inter- national helpline for other victims. Christina Buckley, 46, whose revelations about the horrors of Goldenbridge Orphanage, in Dublin, sparked a flood of abuse allegations, is determined the world should never forget how evil nuns preyed on children. 

The brave campaigner, who has just set up a counselling service for victims of abuse on Dublin's Ormond Quay, has now joined forces with Irish-Australian abuse victim Peggy Rush.  The 57-year-old mother of three has spent the last decade fighting for justice after enduring a brutal regime under the Sisters of Mercy at Goodwood Orphanage in South Australia.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/WE+WANT+JUSTICE+FOR+ALL+CHILDREN+ABUSED+BY+NUNS%3B+EXCLUSIVE%3A+VICTIMS...-a061768687

Nuns abused children at four Catholic-run care homes, inquiry finds

The details emerged during an inquiry into historical institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland. Judge Sir Anthony Hart who compiled the major report said there were also instances of sexual abuse at the homes carried out by priests and lay people.
The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) was set up in 2012 to look into allegations of child abuse in 22 children’s homes and other residential institutions between 1922 to 1995.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/20/nuns-abused-children-at-four-catholic-run-care-homes-inquiry-finds-6393632/ 

Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry: Nuns abused children in care homes

Children's homes run by some churches, charities and state institutions in Northern Ireland were the scene of widespread abuse and mistreatment of young residents, a report has found.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) studied allegations of abuse in 22 homes and other residential institutions between 1922 to 1995. These were facilities run by the state, local authorities, the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland and the children's charity Barnardo's.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-38685157 

Nuns' helper jailed for sex abuse

Blaney was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh  A former helper at a Nazareth House children's home in Lasswade has been jailed for six years after he admitted sexually abusing two boys.

Peter Blaney, 53, from Kilsyth, Lanarkshire, was sentenced on 1 September, but a ban was placed on reporting until the end of the Sister Marie Docherty trial.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/930637.stm 

More Victims Claiming Sexual Abuse by Montana Priests and Nuns

In January, Indian Country Today Media Network reported that a Yakima, Washington–based law firm had filed a 12-page legal complaint on behalf of a Northern Cheyenne tribal member seeking justice for years of abuse she suffered as a child at Montana’s St. Labre Indian School in the 1950s and 1960s.  The case is a significant one, as the accused is Father Emmett Hoffmann, a near-legendary figure on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.
In recent weeks, the case has become even bigger. According to an amended, 19-page version of the legal complaint filed on June 6 in Montana’s Eighth Judicial District Court, priests and nuns misused their authority to “molest, exploit and abuse children” across eastern Montana. The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis are now named in the complaint, and 10 additional male and female victims have joined the original Jane Doe in filing suit against the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings.

https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/news/more-victims-claiming-sexual-abuse-by-montana-priests/ 

Abuse commission told nun 'vilified'

Sr Xavieria Lally of the Goldenbridge industrial school in Dublin, had been "demonised and vilified" over the past decade, with this "accepted in the public domain as fact", Sr Helena O'Donoghue of the Sisters of Mercy told the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse yesterday.

The nuns' denials that children in the industrial school were "abused in a horrific way" had been "almost completely ignored", she said.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/abuse-commission-told-nun-vilified-1.423503 

Philomena author reveals abuse of Irish children ‘sold’ to America

Irish children born out of wedlock in the 1950s and 60s were often sold to American couples by the Catholic Church, according to a television documentary by the author of the Philomena story.
In the BBC programme, Martin Sixsmith says that the system was a ‘lottery’ for the children as the Church did little to ensure the adoptive parents would be suitable. Sixsmith is the author of the book Philomena, which was made into an Oscar nominated film starring Dame Judy Dench and Steve Coogan.

http://ireland-calling.com/lifestyle/philomena-author-reveals-abuse-suffered-irish-children-sold-to-america/ 

Bad girls do the best sheets

Before the welfare net existed, religious orders used to catch orphans and unmarried mothers abandoned by their families. Alan Gill writes how girls suffered under the nuns' vale of tears.
They were called "laundry slaves" - women and teenage girls employed in commercial laundries run by Catholic religious orders, the idea being to combine rehabilitation of supposed delinquents with the chance to earn a modest profit.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/23/1050777303111.html 

An Irritable Post by an Irritable Nun

The hot weather is getting to me. I have laid aside, for the time being, a long and carefully argued post about RB 31 and the role of the cellarer and decided instead to have a little fun with some of my King Charles’ heads. In no particular order, therefore:
The Vatican Bank
Well, perhaps we now know why Pope Francis wasn’t at that concert! There has been more than a whiff of sulphur around the Institute of Religious Works (IOR), as the Bank is known, for many years. We must continue to hope for a thoroughgoing investigation and reform. However, those inclined to gloat should remember (a) that British banks are not exactly models of propriety, alas, and (b) ask themselves which other banks donated $70 million to charity in 2012. For reasons that are probably only too clear to you, if not to me, I have not yet received the call to go and sort them out. I shall therefore join the thousands of others acting as armchair experts and bore you in due course with my theories and opinions on what should be done.

http://www.ibenedictines.org/2013/07/10/an-irritable-post-by-an-irritable-nun/ 

Lawsuit: ‘Spotlight’ Heroes Made Money Off Priests' Victims

For over 20 years, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has operated with a mission to expose clergy sexual abuse and its coverup—work that was highlighted by last year’s Oscar-award winning film Spotlight. But a new lawsuit alleges that the St. Louis-based charity actually exploits abuse survivors in a kickback scheme involving attorneys who file lawsuits against the Catholic Church. In the lawsuit against SNAP, a former employee named Gretchen Rachel Hammond charges she was wrongfully fired as SNAP’s development director in 2013 after she confronted SNAP president Barbara Blaine with evidence the group had been “routinely accepting financial kickbacks from attorneys in the form of donations.” 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/05/lawsuit-spotlight-heroes-made-money-off-priests-victims.html 

I was raped by priest in orphanage

A DISABLED mother-of-two has claimed she was raped by a priest and sexually abused by a female care worker when she was a young child in a Scottish orphanage.

Joanne Peacher said the appalling attacks took place in the late 1970s in a Nazareth House children's home, which have been at the centre of several previous abuse scandals. The Sisters of Nazareth, the Roman Catholic order of nuns which operated dozens of orphanages across Britain, recently apologised to children who suffered in their institutions in Northern Ireland. 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/457478/I-was-raped-by-priest-in-orphanage

Minister for Justice needs to explain to the Dáil administration of Magdalene Scheme

Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire has called on the Justice Minister to address the Dáil to explain the manner in which the Magdalene Redress scheme is being administered.
Deputy Ó Laoghaire made the call following the revelation that the Department of Justice is to be probed by the Ombudsman after evidence suggesting maladministration surfaced.

https://thecork.ie/2017/01/29/minister-for-justice-needs-to-explain-to-the-dail-administration-of-magdalene-scheme/ 

Sex abuse inquiry to hold final hearing into Australian Catholic Church

The Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse will examine the current policies and procedures of Catholic Church authorities in Australia in its final public hearing into the church.
The public hearing will be held on Monday inside the royal commission’s hearing rooms at the Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney. The hearing will probe existing child protection and child-safe standards within the Catholic Church, including responding to allegations of child sexual abuse.

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/4436950/final-hearing-into-church/ 

Magdalene redress scheme to be probed

The ombudsman has launched an investigation into possible “evidence of maladministration” of the
The investigation was revealed in the High Court on Thursday where two women are challenging the department’s decision not to include them in the redress scheme.
The ombudsman, Peter Tyndall, notified the department of its intention to launch an investigation on December 20. Magdalene redress scheme by the Department of Justice and Equality.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/magdaleneredress-scheme-to-be-probed-441219.html

The Human Zoo: Documentary sheds light on stolen Aboriginal people 'treated as animals'

The Indigenous community on Palm Island in far north Queensland will feature in an historical documentary about a relatively unknown aspect of colonisation.

Up to 20 Aboriginal people were taken from northern Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries to be exhibited alongside animals in what was called The Human Zoo. Along with tens of thousands of other people, they were put on display across Europe and North America until at least 1940.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-28/the-human-zoo-documentary-aboriginal-people-forced-exhibits/8219116 

Complaint to gardaí over Bessborough file alterations

A participant in the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home vaccine trial has made a formal Garda complaint after it emerged files relating to the trial were altered in 2002.
n November, the Irish Examiner revealed the files of mothers and children used in the 1960/61 4-in-1 vaccine trial were altered in 2002 — just weeks after the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse sought discovery of records from the religious order running the home.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/complaint-to-gardai-over-bessborough-file-alterations-441354.html 

Minister for Justice needs to explain to the Dáil administration of Magdalene Scheme

Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire has called on the Justice Minister to address the Dáil to explain the manner in which the Magdalene Redress scheme is being administered.
Deputy Ó Laoghaire made the call following the revelation that the Department of Justice is to be probed by the Ombudsman after evidence suggesting maladministration surfaced.

https://thecork.ie/2017/01/29/minister-for-justice-needs-to-explain-to-the-dail-administration-of-magdalene-scheme/ 

Former sports coach questioned over fresh abuse claims

Gardaí have arrested the imprisoned former Waterford sports coach, Bill Kenneally for questioning after three more men have come forward with allegations that he had abused them when they were teenagers in Waterford in the 1980s.

Detectives arrested Kenneally (66) at the Midlands Prison on January 17th and conveyed him to Portlaoise Garda station where they questioned him for over six hours about the latest allegations against him before he was returned to the Midlands Prison.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/former-sports-coach-questioned-over-fresh-abuse-claims-1.2956043