Vatican recalls envoy to Ireland amid uproar

Vatican's ambassador to Ireland recalled to Rome in protest over report on church's handling of child abuse by priests.  The Vatican has recalled its ambassador to Ireland following a report on the Catholic Church's handling of child abuse by priests that sparked government outrage.
Father Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, said on Monday that Giuseppe Leanza, the archbishop and apostolic nuncio of Ireland, had been ordered to return from Dublin for consultations.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/07/2011725111716578608.html 

Baby remains found in mass grave at ex-Irish orphanage

Remains of children ranging from new-born to three years old discovered in sewers of a former Catholic Church-run home.   A mass grave containing the remains of babies has been found in the sewers of a former Catholic orphanage in western Ireland, according to investigators, confirming a local historian's suspicions of the unmarked burial of hundreds of children.
Excavations found "significant quantities of human remains" in an underground structure divided into 20 chambers at the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, a report from a government-appointed inquiry said on Friday.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/baby-remains-mass-grave-irish-orphanage-170303152505368.html 

Ireland accused of whitewashing childbirth scandal

Hundreds of women who survived a horrific medical procedure and now want compensation feel betrayed by government. One of the ways a government can claim properly to be representing its people is by holding up a magnifying glass to bad things that happened in the past.

In the UK, for example, all sorts of inquiries have been held recently into issues ranging from systematic abuse of children in care to the deaths of football fans in a crush at a ground.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/04/ireland-accused-whitewashing-childbirth-scandal-150411085441926.html 

Blame for N Ireland abuse seen beyond church

As an abuse case begins in Northern Ireland, was the Protestant government as culpable as the Catholic Church?
Sitting opposite me in a hotel room in the town where she was brought up, Katie Walmsley quietly described her childhood. Her parents were splitting up, a priest suggested to her dad that the best place for her would be a children's home for girls. The nuns would keep her safe and well.

"I held on to my daddy's trousers," at the door of the big, imposing building, she said. The nuns pulled her in, and within ten minutes she was sitting with her sister in a bath mixed with jeyes fluid (a toxic industrial detergent people normally use nowadays to get congealed fat out of drains).

http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/europe/2014/02/98396.html 

Mass graves in Ireland: A long history of Church abuse

When human remains were discovered in a septic tank in Tuam, in western Ireland, last month it didn't come as a complete surprise to everyone. The unearthing at the site - a former home for unmarried mothers - was the result of a government commission charged with investigating claims of abuse by religious orders. Excavations uncovered an underground structure where human remains were found.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/03/mass-graves-ireland-long-history-church-abuse-170321060241996.html

Vatican 'shunned' Irish abuse probe

Leaked US diplomatic cables say Vatican officials refused to co-operate with investigation into child abuse by priests.  The Vatican refused to help an Irish investigation into child sex abuse by Catholic priests because the requests were seen as "an affront to Vatican sovereignty," leaked diplomatic cables have shown.
The documents, which were released to the UK's Guardian newspaper by the WikiLeaks website, reveal that the Catholic Church blocked its officials from testifying before an Irish commission because the request was not made through official channels.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2010/12/2010121152615567263.html 

Dead babies and Ireland's dark past

The search for a mass grave leads to inquiry into church-run homes for children born out of wedlock.  Tuam, Ireland - "Everyone knew there was babies buried here, but we thought it was only a small few," says James Mannion, a resident of this western town.
Camera crews and satellite vans assemble in the middle of a housing estate in Tuam. Mannion and other locals have come down to have a look. All are focused on a walled-in, grassy area the size of a basketball court.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/06/mass-baby-grave-ireland-dark-past-2014611122759192401.html 

Irish church faces questions over mass grave

Bones of hundreds of children found in former septic tank thought to be those of orphans who died between 1926 and 1961. The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is facing fresh accusations of child neglect after a researcher found records for 796 young children believed to be buried in a mass grave beside a former orphanage for the children of unwed mothers.
The researcher, Catherine Corless, says her discovery of child death records at the Catholic nun-run home in Tuam, County Galway, suggests that a former septic tank filled with bones is the final resting place for most, if not all, of the children.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/06/irish-catholics-under-fire-over-mass-grave-201463215031168337.html 

Who is running Ireland – the Government or the Church?

The reach and power of the Catholic Church has waned considerably in recent years in Ireland. But there are troubling signs that its undue influence over the country is returning, writes Keith Porteous Wood.

It is difficult to envisage now, but when the UK was formed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Dublin was regarded as the "Second City of the British Empire". Ireland's role in British political life was no less than that of England, Scotland and Wales from then until the progressive separations from Britain that started during the First World War.

http://www.secularism.org.uk/blog/2017/03/who-is-running-ireland--the-government-or-the-church 

Tuam babies adopted in large numbers to US, says historian who broke the scandal

Fears that dozens of children born to unmarried mothers in institutions across Ireland may have been adopted illegally in the United States were raised this week by the brave historian whose research unveiled the “Tuam babies” scandal in Co Galway.
Catherine Corless has called upon the Irish authorities to examine whether the deaths of infants at institutions such as the Tuam Mother and Baby Home may have been falsified in order to facilitate their adoption by American couples.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/tuam-babies-adopted-in-large-numbers-to-us-says-historian-who-broke-the-scandal 

County chief says all archives from Tuam Mother and Baby home have been made available

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The Acting CEO of Galway County Council has rejected claims that archives relating to the Tuam mother and baby home have not been released.
Kevin Kelly told today’s meeting at County Hall that there is no question that the local authority is not making records available. He stressed efforts are focused on making records available in an appropriate manner and in line with statutory requirements on how personal information is dealt with.

https://galwaybayfm.ie/county-chief-says-archives-tuam-mother-baby-home-made-available/ 

Published on 19 Apr 2013

"The Magdalene Laundries" is a song on the Joni Mitchell 1994 album "Turbulent Indigo".

They were the forgotten women of Ireland, kept under lock and key, forced to clean and sew, and to wash away the sins of their previous life while never being paid a penny. Some stayed months, others years. Some never left. They were the inmates of Ireland's notorious 20th century workhouses, the Magdalene Laundries.

The laundries — a beneficent-sounding word that helped hide the mistreatment that took place inside their walls — were operated by four orders of Catholic nuns in Ireland from 1922 to 1996. Over 10,000 young women, considered a burden by family, school and the state, spent an average of six months to a year locked up in these workhouses doing unpaid, manual work. Some were kept there against their will for years.

Their numbers were made up by unmarried mothers and their daughters, women and girls who had been sexually abused, women with mental or physical disabilities who were unable to live independently, and young girls who had grown up under the care of the church and the state.

Nuns who owe millions in abuse reparations given hospital

A religious order that owes millions of euros in compensation for child abuse will retain ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital after it is built with more than €200 million of taxpayers’ money.
The move to increase the assets of the Religious Sisters of Charity has been described as extraordinary following the recent revelation that it still owes €3 million to the state redress scheme.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/52572efa-0ffd-11e7-9efc-104ca844d0d4 

How she did it: the heroic Irish historian who broke the Tuam baby home scandal

A steady stream of survivors from institutions all across Ireland have been making their way to the home of historian Catherine Corless since it was officially confirmed that human remains of a significant number of babies have been found on the site of a former mother and baby home in Co Galway.

Only for her painstaking research over the past six years, the world might never have known that hundreds of babies were buried in unmarked graves at the Tuam site – some of them in vaults constructed from a sewage tank which had not been used since 1938.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/how-she-did-it-the-heroic-irish-historian-who-broke-the-tuam-baby-home-scandal 

Alternative mother and baby homes redress under review

An alternative compensation scheme for people who suffered abuse as children in mother and baby homes to the residential institutions redress scheme is under discussion among Ministers.

The Irish Times reported on Thursday that the existing redress scheme for victims of abuse in residential institutions could be reopened to cover those abused as children in mother and baby homes. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/alternative-mother-and-baby-homes-redress-under-review-1.3022612 

Cabinet to discuss reopening of State redress scheme for survivors of Mother and Baby homes

MINISTERS will next week discuss the prospect of reopening the State’s redress scheme for survivors of the Mother and Baby Homes.

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone will bring an expert commission report to Cabinet which recommends the reopening of a 2002 scheme that previously paid out compensation for institutional abuse. The scheme, which has to date cost almost €1.5bn, closed to new applicants in September 2011.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/cabinet-to-discuss-reopening-of-state-redress-scheme-for-survivors-of-mother-and-baby-homes-35559999.html 

If There Had Not Been A Public Outcry’

The grounds of the former Bon Secours mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway; Galway West independent TD Catherine Connolly

You may recall how, during Leaders’ Questions on March 8, Independent TD Catherine Connolly, of Galway West, asked about a second interim report from the Commission into Mother and Baby Homes which was given to the Minister for Children Katherine Zappone last September.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2017/03/23/if-there-had-not-been-a-public-outcry/ 

The Magdalene Report: A Conclusion

the report into the Magdalene Laundries, published yesterday. We had a chance to read it… The mandate of the Committee (Ch 2 para 8) was to find out facts regarding State involvement in Magdalene Laundries.
The report shows this involvement to be extensive and to occur through the criminal justice system (ch 9), industrial and reformatory schools (ch 10) and the mental health system (ch 11) it also shows in Ch 9 State involvement in keeping girls in laundries e.g. Gardai returning girls who had run away.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2013/02/06/the-magdalene-report-a-conclusion/ 

Tuam home makes it easier to comprehend Hitler, says TD

‘It is easy to understand how people were able to do these things’, says Martin Kenny.  Reflecting on the oppressive Ireland of mother and baby homes makes it easy to understand how Adolf Hitler was able to do what he did, the Dáil has heard.

Sinn Féin deputy Martin Kenny said that when he was growing up, “I often wondered about Hitler, the Germans and what happened to the Jews and how he was able to do what he did.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/tuam-home-makes-it-easier-to-comprehend-hitler-says-td-1.3020618#.WNP2UJ58VIR.facebook 

Homes survivors’ group ceases co-operation with commission

Homes survivors’ group ceases co-operation with commission. A vgroup representing women coerced during pregnancy has stopped co-operating with the Mothers and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation over concerns about how it is being run.
The Irish First Mothers group is seeking clarity from the State on whether testimony given to the commission will be sealed. It is fearful the confidential nature of the commission may mean victim accounts will never be aired publicly.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/homes-survivors-group-ceases-co-operation-with-commission-1.3009227 

Home»Breaking News»ireland Locals hold vigil for babies at Tuam Mother and Baby Home

It comes nearly two weeks after the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation found “significant quantities of human remains” involving children up to the age of three, in underground sewage chambers at the former Bon Secours Sisters home.
The recorded deaths of 796 children were previously identified at the Tuam home from 1925 to 1961, many from debility from birth, respiratory diseases, measles, and influenza.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/locals-hold-vigil-for-babies-at-tuam-mother-and-baby-home-781897.html 

Concealed pregnancies are still occurring, study finds

Concealed pregnancies are still occurring in this country even though mother and baby homes no longer exist and the women, choosing to hide pregnancies, are of all ages and social backgrounds, according to research from Trinity College Dublin
The research, which is to be published in full early in the summer, found that some of the women had suffered “traumatic life experience” and some had found difficulties during pregnancy in accessing information around adoption.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/concealed-pregnancies-are-still-occurring-study-finds-445885.html 

Revealed: Nuns obstruct major maternity hospital plans

Plans to co-locate the National Maternity Hospital on the site of St Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin have all but collapsed over a merger dispute, with major implications for maternity and neonatal services in Ireland.

The design for the co-located National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent's Hospital Group Campus at Elm Park, first mooted in 1998 - and formally announced in May 2013 - is ready for submission to An Bord Pleanala.
 

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/revealed-nuns-obstruct-major-maternity-hospital-plans-34654181.html 

'The dead don't lie' - Minister Zappone hopes men will come forward to reveal what they knew about Mother and Baby Home practices

Children's Minister Katherine Zappone has said it will be a number of weeks before her department has finished looking at what other institutions and that she hopes men come forward to testify in any investigations.

She said the shocking revelations have forced Ireland to confront a dark period of our past.

"As the poet laureate Anne Enright says 'the dead do not lie' and we are, all of the people in Ireland, throughout the country and internationally as well, trying to come to terms with what does this actually mean for our country," she said.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/the-dead-dont-lie-minister-zappone-hopes-men-will-come-forward-to-reveal-what-they-knew-about-mother-and-baby-home-practices-35518646.html 

'After hours of questioning by “experts”, Theresa was left traumatised and had to make her own way home'

'After hours of questioning by “experts”, Theresa was left traumatised and had to make her own way home'. FINE GAEL’S EDUCATION Minister, Richard Bruton has said that there are no “plans” to reopen the State’s redress scheme for new entrants in light of the Tuam Baby scandal.
However, with the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes underway, it is important to start thinking about the process of redress that is likely to be set up after the investigation is completed.

http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/after-hours-of-questioning-by-experts-theresa-was-left-traumatised-and-had-to-make-her-own-way-home-3299373-Mar2017/?utm_source=shortlink 

Timeline: Investigations into child abuse in the Irish Catholic church

Key steps in Ireland's struggle to confront child abuse committed by Catholic church officials 1994 
June The Irish Catholic priest Brendan Smyth pleads guilty in Northern Ireland to 17 counts of indecently assaulting five girls and two boys in Belfast. His order, the Norbertines, spent decades shuttling Smyth among Irish and US parishes and harboured him from British arrest.
November The Irish prime minister, Albert Reynolds, resigns and his government collapses amid claims his attorney general colluded with church authorities to delay the British extradition demand for Smyth. The case shatters Irish taboo against pursuing criminal charges against priests.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-church-child-abuse 

Mothers & Babies to be remembered in Mothers Day walk in Thomastown.

A walk to remember the mothers and babies who are buried beside St Columba’s Hospital in Thomastown has been organised for this Mothers’ Day.
St Columba’s was formerly a county home and mother and baby facility and has been included in the representative sample being investigated by the Commission into Mother and Baby Homes.

http://kclr96fm.com/mothers-day-memorial-walk-planned-thomastown/ 

Religious orders rebuffed funding request for Magdalene women redress

The Government, seeking redress for the Magdalene women, found a religious community unwilling to contribute, The McAleese report into Magdalene laundries was published in early 2013. A State apology by Taoiseach Enda Kenny to the women who worked for no pay in these institutions quickly followed.
Within days of the publication of the report, behind the scenes, the government was writing to the four religious orders that ran the laundries requesting that they contribute money to a redress fund.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/religious-orders-rebuffed-funding-request-for-magdalene-women-redress-445161.html 

Deep resentment towards Murphy reflected in frosty reception on the 'Late Late'

A 2006 article in the 'Chicago Tribune', titled 'How Catholicism Fell From Grace in Ireland', points to the Bishop Eamonn Casey scandal as the beginning of the end for the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The revelation in May 1992 that one of the hierarchy's most high-profile prelates had fathered a son following an affair with an American woman when he was Bishop of Kerry in the 1970s was, up to that point, the worst scandal to hit the Irish Church. It shocked the Irish faithful and resulted in a storm of international media headlines.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/deep-resentment-towards-murphy-reflected-in-frosty-reception-on-the-late-late-35528696.html 

Catholic church finally responds to Tuam baby scandal

Two Irish Archbishops addressed the Tuam baby scandal in their homilies this weekend, both condemning the actions of the Mother and Baby home in the Galway town where a grave containing the bodies of 796 infants and children was confirmed earlier this month.

In his homily delivered at St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin on Sunday evening, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, stated that all must be done to ensure the full truth of the mother and baby homes is known, calling for a full investigation into practices of the time.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/catholic-church-finally-responds-to-tuam-baby-scandal# 

What the Tuam babies nightmare is telling us about the Irish people

You might not expect to hear it from this columnist, but I don’t solely blame the religious orders for what happened at the Tuam mother and baby home in Co. Galway.

Some commentators have called the Tuam baby story a tragedy. It was not. A ship that sinks after hitting a looming iceberg is a tragedy. An institution that buries infants in an underground “sewage treatment works” is following a policy.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/irishvoice/what-the-tuam-babies-nightmare-is-telling-us-about-the-irish-people#.WMfpsCpDeKE.facebook 

I’m not feeling so proud to be Irish this St Patrick’s Day

As the annual celebration of Irish Catholicism and nationalism - St Patrick’s Day - looms large, we hardly need reminding that Irish Catholicism is floundering. As a one-time seminarian, it gives me no satisfaction to make such a statement.

The latest news from Tuam, which I’ve been following closely from my home in Tasmania, leaves little grounds for even a semblance of optimism that things will improve any time soon.

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/i-m-not-feeling-so-proud-to-be-irish-this-st-patrick-s-day-1.3011711#.WMmXPI79ZqQ.facebook 

Bouncy Castle Catholics have questions to answer too

Irish society was completely warped by the Catholic Church, writes Donal O’Keeffe. It’s time for a-la-carte Catholics to think about what they condone.
The Catholic archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, last week called for the inquiry into mother-and-baby homes to be widened beyond “one particular religious congregation”. Well. You know what that means. It means the Catholic Church – and its apologists – are saying you can’t pin the blame solely (or if they can help it, at all) on the Catholic Church.

http://avondhupress.ie/bouncy-castle-catholics-questions-answer/ 

IrishCentral Talks: The Tuam Mother and Baby Home (VIDEO)

The eyes of the world have been on Ireland recently, since news emerged that human remains had been excavated from the site of a former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam Co. Galway; the same home where, as a local historian revealed in 2014, nearly 800 infants and children died between the years of 1925 and 1961, with no burial place ever listed.

Research into archives, records and first-hand accounts has helped to paint a full picture of the horrors and lack of respect for human life that took place in the former St. Mary's Home, but with a story such as this it can be challenging to separate what is true from what has been sensationalized.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/irishcentral-talks-the-tuam-mother-and-baby-home-video#

Tuam is only one name in a litany of abuse

I AGREE with Kevin Myers that Irish society as a whole was culpable in stigmatising unmarried mothers (“Let’s take easy option and burn a few Bon Secours nuns”, Comment, last week). The Catholic Church became even more influential after Irish independence in 1922.
People often accepted without question its teachings. Notwithstanding this, Irish families must accept a large proportion of responsibility for what happened in Tuam. While some supported their unmarried daughters and offspring, many, because of shame and incest, did not.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/tuam-is-only-one-name-in-a-litany-of-abuse-b5r20wrtt 

Conall O’Fatharta Open The Files

Bessborough House in Blackrock, Cork; a page from the  death register of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the order which ran Bessborough  You may recall a special investigation by Conall Ó Fátharta, of the Irish Examiner, published in June 2015.
During his investigation, Mr Ó Fátharta obtained material produced on foot of the HSE examining both the Tuam and Bessborough mother and baby homes in 2012, as part of the McAleese Inquiry into the Magdalene laundries.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/tag/conall-ofatharta/ 

I am haunted by the names of the Tuam babies, what would they have become?

Ireland has always been a good place for children to grow up – as long as they were the “right” kind of children. Patrick. Mary. Matthew. Peter. Julia. James. Joseph. John. Maud. Mary Kate. Christina. Annie. Richard. Florence. Rose. Luke. Donald. Eileen. Henry. Sabina. Bridget. Fabian. Oliver. Stephen. Imelda. Paul.

There isn’t enough space in this column for all of their names. Seven hundred and ninety six death certificates. Seven hundred and ninety six infants who died at the mother and baby home in Tuam, some of whose remains are among the “significant quantities” found in underground chambers on the site of the home. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/i-am-haunted-by-the-names-of-the-tuam-babies-what-would-they-have-become-1.3005354 

Nun lying ‘through her teeth’ about Tuam home, court hears

Solicitor urges court to help elderly man with cancer find out what happened to baby sister.   A solicitor for an elderly man described as “extremely ill” with cancer has urged the High Court to help him find out what happened to his infant sister after she was born at St Mary’s mother-and-baby home in Tuam.

Solicitor Kevin Higgins said Peter Mulryan, whose infant sister Marian Bridget Mulryan is believed to be among 796 children recorded as having died there between 1925-1961, was too unwell on Monday to be in court and is extremely anxious to get whatever records exist concerning her.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/nun-lying-through-her-teeth-about-tuam-home-court-hears-1.3000196 

Fintan O’Toole: Ireland is still defined by the church’s mindset

In that most searing exploration of the Irish psyche, Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, James Tyrone urges his ghostlike wife: “Mary! For God’s sake, forget the past!”

Mary Tyrone, “with strange objective calm”, replies: “Why? How can I? The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too.” In Ireland, we don’t live in the past – but the past lives in us. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-ireland-is-still-defined-by-the-church-s-mindset-1.3008295 

Access to files for Tuam Baby Home, a ‘basic right’, says TD

The fact that some survivors of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home may have to take High Court cases to access records of family members has been described as an “obscenity”.

Deputy Catherine Connolly says access to such files for survivors and next of kin is a “basic right”.
Welcoming confirmation that the second interim report from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission will be published by the end of March, she said this however must be accompanied by an explanation as to why there has been such an unacceptable delay in its release.

http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/91199/access-to-files-for-tuam-baby-home-a-basic-right-says-td 

SO HOW MANY DIED IN IRISH HOMES?

Bill Donohue comments on the alleged number of persons who died in Ireland’s Mother and Baby homes in the twentieth century:

Paul Redmond is chairman of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors. He was born in one of the homes in 1964, and was adopted 17 days later. He has become the leading activist involved in the search for answers to what actually happened in these homes.

http://www.catholicleague.org/so-how-many-died-in-irish-homes/ 

History of Good Shepherd Convent must be considered before redevelopment

The History of Cork's Good Shepherd Convent must be taken into account before any redevelopment can take place. The concerns were raised by local residents at a public meeting last night, about the possibility of human remains in unmarked graves on the site of the former Magdalen laundry.
The Convent operated as an orphanage and a Magdalen laundry until the late 1970's, and it's estimated 30,000 women were admitted over it's 150 year history.

http://www.redfm.ie/news/cork/history-of-good-shepherd-convent-must-be-considered-before-redevelopment/ 

Calls to examine former Cork convent where it is believed there are up to 100 unmarked graves

Plans are currently in place for a 234 apartment complex on the grounds of the former convent.  Calls have been made for a full examination of a proposed redevelopment site where it is believed there are up to 100 unmarked graves.
Plans are currently in place for a 234 apartment complex on the grounds of the former Good Shepherd Convent in Cork city.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/calls-examine-former-cork-convent-10038315 

Mother and Baby Home survivor reveals lifetime impact of abuse and deprivation at notorious Bethany Home

"I suffered from rickets so my legs couldn’t carry my own weight... I was malnourished".  A survivor of a notorious mother and baby home has told how he was so neglected he ended up with a steel knee, a plastic hip and “riddled with arthritis”.
James Fenning, 75, has little memory of the years he spent in the Church of Ireland-run Bethany Home in Dublin.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/mother-baby-home-survivor-reveals-10010486#ICID=sharebar_facebook 

Pat Flanagan: Bonking Bishop scandal exposed the hypocrisy of Church which hated women

Sex exploits of bishop worried the Church more than plight of the abused and women locked up in Mother and Baby Homes.  Bishop Casey’s sexual escapades “profoundly upset the Church”, his funeral Mass was told on Thursday.
It’s just a pity the organisation to which he belonged was less upset by decades of clerical sex abuse and the horrors of the mother and baby homes and Magdalene Laundries.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/pat-flanagan-bonking-bishop-scandal-10046246#ICID=sharebar_facebook 

Bethany Home survivor group claims more babies died at the home

Many Bethany Home children were farmed out to what the group describe as 'Horror Homes'.  Up to 37 children from the Bethany Mother and Baby Home were buried in a cemetery without being listed in an official death toll, it was claimed today.
A memorial with the names of 222 kids whose remains were put in an unmarked grave at Mount Jerome between 1922 and 1949 was unveiled in 2014.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/bethany-home-survivor-group-claims-10049449#ICID=sharebar_facebook 

Longford Leader columnist: Awfulness of Tuam Mother and Baby Home beyond comprehension

he awfulness that is emerging with regard to the behaviour of the state and several other institutions who had responsibility for simply treating babies properly, is astounding beyond comprehension. 
The entire saga - or what we've been exposed to so far - seems impossible to believe in this land, reputed to be Ireland of The Welcomes. We fell far short of that interpretation, when viewed through the prism of the Tuam Babies, and other upcoming, horror stories.

http://www.longfordleader.ie/news/home/240221/longford-leader-columnist-awfulness-of-tuam-mother-and-baby-home-beyond-comprehension.html 

Bishop of Cloyne: Let’s hear truth about Bessborough

The true picture of what happened in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork may be difficult to hear but it needs to come out, the Bishop of Cloyne, William Crean said yesterday.
In an interview with Cork’s Red FM, Dr Crean said the story of what happened at the home should be told. “This is part of our national story in the 20th century. It is only unfolding slowly. The truth may be very difficult. But it is best we have the truth in relation to it,” he said.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/bishop-of-cloyne-lets-hear-truth-about-bessborough-444965.html

Woman tells how cruel nuns forced her to slave in hellhole mother and baby home as she went into labour

Joan said: “I was in labour, but I was still forced to continue polishing the floors on my hands and knees"  A woman yesterday told how cruel nuns forced her to continue slaving in a hellhole mother and baby home as she went into labour.
Joan McDermott was interned at Cork’s Bessborough House at age 17 and gave birth to a boy in harrowing conditions.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/woman-told-how-cruel-nuns-9999530 

Tuam: Women were just “ignorant creatures full of nothing but sin and misery”

and that was just how the nuns treated us innocent babies and children... we were doomed from the day our mothers... were taken to the catholic church hospital for unwed mothers...
All the mothers and babies suffering because of the greed of the nuns... the catholic church and also the governments... they were all in on the selling of babies... I don't know how most of us unwanted babies of the catholic church survived... I know that we were kept alive so as we could tell our stories to the world... the things we had to do... to prove that we loved god... they were sinful... they were very painful... and the pain upon pain... which we were already suffering... in god's and Jesus name... while we were called the devil's daughters... it was a life of FEAR... while they had the power and control over us children... Ann

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

If you need to know how Tuam babies cases happened look no further than the attitude of the Irish church to women in the 20th century.  It is fair to say the attitude was there among Protestant clergy too, given there were similar horrific deaths in the Protestant Bethany Home, where 222 babies and children died.
Women, especially poor or uneducated ones, were mere chattels of men, incapable of intelligent thought. Certainly, they should never be allowed to vote. In 1909 Father David Barry wrote the following in a magazine called Irish Ecclesiastical Record:

http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/others/tuam-women-were-just-ignorant-creatures-full-of-nothing-but-sin-and-misery#.WMdgGmG3ZOF.facebook[size=large

catholic church abuse: criminal nuns and priests

I want to protect you and your loved ones from becoming victims of crimes by the catholic church and all abusers of human beings. I want to give survivors of sexual and physical abuse a voice to be heard all over the world. All abuse of children and adults by religious groups and by any organization or individual must be stopped. We can add our voices to a growing, worldwide community of people who want truth and justice. Please share your experiences with me and others on this blog.  

Pope Francis creating a child abuse scandal. Back in December 2016 the Pope told the world that bishops should enforce a zero tolerance policy for any priest who sexually abuses a child. The hidden truth is that Francis doesn’t treat all priests who abuse children equally.  Some are punished, some are not.  What happens depends on whether the priest has friends in high places.

http://catholicchurchabusebynunsandpriests.blogspot.co.nz/2017/01/pope-francis-creating-child-abuse.html?spref=pi 

Irish abuse survivor accuses Vatican of 'shameful' resistance as she resigns from its child protection panel

Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins on Wednesday accused the Vatican of “shameful” resistance to fighting clerical sex abuse in the Catholic Church as she resigned from a key panel set up by Pope Francis to deal with the issue.
Ms Collins’ shock resignation is a huge setback for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors which was set up by the pope in 2013 to counter abuse in the church.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/01/irish-abuse-survivor-accuses-vatican-shameful-resistance-resigns/ 

I was used as a guinea pig in child vaccine scandal'

A woman subjected to a controversial vaccine trial as a baby without her mother's consent broke her silence last night to reveal her traumatic decades-long fight for justice.
Mari Steed (50) was effectively used as a guinea pig during the 'four-in-one' vaccine trials carried out on her between December 1960 and October 1961 when she was between nine and 18 months old.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/republic-of-ireland/i-was-used-as-a-guinea-pig-in-child-vaccine-scandal-28553906.html 

What About Dublin?

From top: St Patrick’s Home on the Navan Road in Dublin which was initially known as Pelletstown and a table in Dr Lindsey Earner-Byrne’s book Mother and Child outlining the number of infant deaths in four mother and baby homes in 1933.
To recap.
On Sunday, May 25, Alison O’Reilly in the Irish Mail on Sunday reported that it’s believed 796 babies were buried in a disused septic tank by Bon Secours nuns between 1925 and 1961.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/06/05/what-about-dublin/ 

Controversy over vaccine trial files

PARTICIPANTS in controversial vaccine trials in mother-and-baby homes have been told by the Department of Health that it can’t give them their medical files or any trial documentation as it is legally bound to return the files to the drugs company.
The files are in the hands of the Laffoy Commission on Child Abuse, which was forced to halt its vaccine trials investigation following a 2002 court case. Last night, Brenda McVeigh of the commission confirmed that they were “undertaking an examination of all documentation that they have and cataloguing it”. She said no files have yet been returned to Glaxo SmithKline.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/controversy-over-vaccine-trial-files-142986.html

Did Irish Nuns Starve Kids To Death

The insanity over the “mass grave” story in Tuam has now reached a fever pitch. The Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, says that the Bon Secours Sisters took the babies of unwed mothers and “sold them, trafficked them [and] starved them.”
That is a serious charge, and serious accusations demand serious evidence. He provided none. Kenny offered not one scintilla of evidence to back up his fantastic story. Not surprisingly, he found a kindred soul in the U.S. in Niall O’Dowd of Irish Central; he quoted his remarks with relish the next day.

http://www.eurasiareview.com/10032017-did-irish-nuns-starve-kids-to-death-oped/ 

I wasn't shocked, I knew they were there': Catherine Corless receives standing ovation on Late Late

CATHERINE CORLESS, THE local historian who helped uncover the substantial remains at the Tuam mother and baby home through her work appeared on The Late Late Show on RTÉ this evening.
She told the story about how she managed to uncover evidence about the remains of babies at the Tuam home, and how the week following the revelations has been.

http://www.thejournal.ie/corless-late-late-tuam-3282307-Mar2017/?utm_source=facebook_short

Mary Lou McDonald to speak at ‘Flowers for Magdalenes’ in Glasnevin next Sunday

THE sixth annual “Flowers for Magdalenes” remembrance event takes place next Sunday (5 March) at 2:30pm at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.
This special event aims to remember the women and girls who were incarcerated in Magdalene Laundries during that shameful period of our all too recent history. The poignant ceremony will feature an address from Claire McGettrick of Justice for Magdalenes Research, Mary Lou McDonald TD  and Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire TD.

http://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/26696 

No apology from nuns as 'significant quantities' of human remains discovered

A religious order which ran a mother and baby home has failed to issue an apology after a commission of investigation discovered what are believed to be the remains of hundreds of children in underground chambers at the property.

The Bon Secours Sisters said it couldn't comment on the find, which Children's Minister Katherine Zappone described as "disturbing".

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/no-apology-from-nuns-as-significant-quantities-of-human-remains-discovered-35500878.html 

'If there's bodies just leave them there'

The historian who spearheaded the campaign to discover the fate of 800 children who died at a former Catholic home for unmarried mothers and their children in Ireland was told 'just leave them there'. 

Catherine Corless, 62, discovered there were 798 death certificates for children at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, but only one burial certificate. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4281094/Historian-told-stop-research-leading-mass-grave-find.html

Survivors call for meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny over deaths at institutions for unmarried mothers and their babies

It is thought about 35,000 mums spent time in one of ten homes run by religious orders around the country. SURVIVORS of institutions for unmarried mothers and their babies have called for an urgent meeting with the Taoiseach over demands to extend an inquiry into deaths in the homes.

A commission set up to investigate alleged abuse at one Catholic Church facility in Tuam, Co Galway has excavated part of a burial site and found a “significant” quantity of human remains in “underground chambers”.

https://www.thesun.ie/news/677068/survivors-call-for-meeting-with-taoiseach-enda-kenny-over-deaths-at-institutions-for-unmarried-mothers-and-their-babies/ 

Order of nuns that dumped up to 800 babies into a septic tank must be disbanded, says TD

The nuns remained silent in the face of national outrage over the child-dumping scandal which Taoiseach Enda Kenny branded “truly appalling”

The order of nuns which dumped the bodies of up to 800 babies and children in a septic tank must be disbanded and its assets seized, a TD insisted yesterday.  Brid Smith has also demanded the Bon Secours make a complete apology to the victims of its notorious mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/order-nuns-dumped-up-800-9979348 

Taoiseach accused of ‘insulting’ women over Tuam baby scandal

A heated exchange in the Dáil between the Taoiseach and Independent TD Catherine Connolly ensued after Connolly claimed he was insulting the women of Ireland. Video: Oireachtas

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he sees no reason why an interim report from the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes to the Government should not be published.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/taoiseach-accused-of-insulting-women-over-tuam-baby-scandal-1.3002434?mode=sample&auth-failed=1&pw-origin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.irishtimes.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Foireachtas%2Ftaoiseach-accused-of-insulting-women-over-tuam-baby-scandal-1.3002434

Bishop of Tuam Issues Press Statement on Mother and Baby Home Scandal

The bishop of Tuam has released a statement in which he seeks to distance his diocese from the appalling treatment of the women who were locked up in the notorious Mother and baby Home.

In doing so, he follows in the footsteps of Cardinal Cahal Daly, who also sought to distance himself from any responsiblity for the monstrous behaviour of Father Brendan Smyth, the paedophile whose activities brought down a government and first exposed to the world what was really going on behind the veil of sanctity in Ireland.

http://bocktherobber.com/2014/06/bishop-of-tuam-issues-press-statement-on-mother-and-baby-home-scandal/ 

Tuam “chamber of horrors” – babies starved, sold, experimented on

At least 6,000 Irish children died in the now notorious mother and baby homes throughout Ireland, but the nightmare doesn't end there. Eighteen children, mostly girls, mostly mentally handicapped, were starved to death.

Details are emerging of the horrific stories behind some of the 796 deaths at the Tuam mother and baby home. Irish leader Enda Kenny made an impassioned speech in the parliament yesterday calling Tuam a “Chamber of Horrors.”

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/tuam-chamber-of-horrors-babies-starved-sold-experimented-on#.WL_kgOFHpFc.facebook 

Woman tells of horror of losing her 'healthy' newborn baby in Bessborough mother and baby home

A woman has told of the horror of losing her 'healthy' newborn baby in Bessborough mother and baby home, Cork back in 1961. Bridget, aged in her 70's, told how her child could have been saved but died just over a month after birth.
An emotional Bridget spoke to Joe Duffy on Liveline and explained how she felt something bad might happen the second she arrived at the home in Cork.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/woman-tells-horror-losing-healthy-9983743 

An estimated 10,000 young Irish girls were sent to the laundries where they were were forced to work without pay

An inquiry found 2,124 of those detained in institutions such as the now derelict Sisters of Our Lady of Charity Magdalene Laundry in Dublin were sent by the authorities.

An estimated 10,000 young Irish girls were sent to the laundries where they were were forced to work without pay and were subjected to a strict regime at the hands of the nuns who ran the institutions ‘PRISONS FOR THE DISAPPEARED’

https://tedteamsite.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/an-inquiry-found-2124-of-those-detained-in-institutions-such-as-the-now-derelict-sisters-of-our-lady-of-charity-magdalene-laundry-in-dublin-were-sent-by-the-authorities/

Pressure grows for Bessborough Mother and Baby Home excavations

The Government has come under pressure to carry out excavations at the site of Bessborough Mother and Baby Home where hundreds of infants died.  Calls have been made in the Dáil to carry out examinations at the Cork site in the wake of the revelations of mass burial chambers at the Tuam facility.
AAA-PBP TD Mick Barry said 470 infants and 10 women had died between 1934 and 1953 at Bessborough. He claimed the nuns took a “business decision” not to give each child a marked grave as it would make a bad impression on Americans visiting to adopt babies from the home.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/pressure-grows-for-bessborough-mother-and-baby-home-excavations-444863.html 

Calls for new search of D4 Magdelene site over claims surrounding 312 burials

More than 300 human burials may be associated with the Donnybrook Magdalene laundry, Dublin City Council's senior archaeologist believes.

Dr Ruth Johnson has reviewed two reports in estimating how many remains might be at the site, which is now the subject of a planning application for an apartment block.

http://www.herald.ie/news/calls-for-new-search-of-d4-magdelene-site-over-claims-surrounding-312-burials-35514522.html 

Tuam baby interim report to be published by month end, says Zappone

An interim report on the Tuam baby scandal is to be published by the end of the month, Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has said.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny came under strong Opposition pressure in the Dáil on Wednesday to have the report, compiled by the commission investigating the human remains on the Galway site, published. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/oireachtas/tuam-baby-interim-report-to-be-published-by-month-end-says-zappone-1.3003873 

Archdiocese of Tuam failed these children

The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, is “horrified and saddened” by revelations confirming the presence of significant human remains, thought to be those of some 796 children, buried in an underground sewage treatment works at the former Sisters of the Bon Secours’ Children’s Home in the town.
Speaking last Sunday morning, Dr Neary reflected on a by-gone era: “This points to a time of great suffering and pain for the little ones and their mothers. I can only begin to imagine the huge emotional wrench which the mothers suffered in giving up their babies for adoption or by witnessing their death.”

http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/archdiocese-of-tuam-failed-these-children-444729.html 

Kathy Sheridan: Tuam baby burials suggest an insidious agenda

Anyone who enjoys ramble around old Irish cemeteries will recognise them. Fine edifices of marble and granite, rendering glory to the mortal remains of senior churchmen, trumpeting a temporal hierarchy even in death.

Meanwhile, stories of the despised unbaptised – stillborns and foetuses – denied a burial in sacred ground and destined for the loveless afterlife of limbo, lie deep in us still. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/kathy-sheridan-tuam-baby-burials-suggest-an-insidious-agenda-1.3001143 

Coveney concerned over extending Mother & Baby homes inquiry

Simon Coveney says he's concerned about extending the terms of the current commission of inquiry into Mother and Baby homes because it will delay the findings.

Coveney says that an extension could put off a lot of the work that's already been done specifically in relation to the case in Tuam. Yesterday the Taoiseach said there needs to be a period of reflection on what Ireland does as a nation in response to the scandal.

http://www.newstalk.com/Coveney-concerned-about-extending-Mother-and-Baby-homes-inquiry- 

Honest appraisal’ needed in wake of Tuam, says TD

The discovery of the remains of almost 800 children on the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, over a five decade period must herald the beginning of an “honest appraisal” of what went on at all the other homes throughout the country, a local TD insisted this week.

Deputy Catherine Connolly said equally, the role that both the State and church played in the “incarceration of women and their babies” must also come under the spotlight.

http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/90965/honest-appraisal-needed-in-wake-of-tuam-says-td 

Tuam reminds of unmarried mothers being ‘judged and rejected’

Catholic bishops have said the latest controversy surrounding the mother and baby home at Tuam is a reminder of “when unmarried mothers were frequently judged and rejected” in Ireland.

The Bishops’ Conference said it discussed such institutions during its three-day spring general meeting and reiterated its apology for the hurt caused by the church’s role in the system. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/tuam-reminds-of-unmarried-mothers-being-judged-and-rejected-1.3003028 

Rush to moralise over Tuam has run ahead of the facts

There is something deeply disturbing, ghoulish even, in the media and political discussion of the Tuam mother and baby home.

No one, apart from a handful of Catholic extremists, denies that conditions in the home were grim, and that the women and children who lived and died there were gravely wronged.

http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/rush-to-moralise-over-tuam-has-run-ahead-of-the-facts-1.3002786 

Better honoured in death than in life

If we are to be horrified by what we are learning about the Tuam Mother and Baby Home, we should probably reserve our anger more for how the infant children of unmarried mothers were treated in life than in death.
The Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation has, as we know, conducted test excavations late last year and earlier this year by the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, finding two large structures. One was a septic tank that had been decommissioned and filled in, the other being a long structure containing 20 chambers, at least 17 of which contained significant quantities of human remains from infants between 35 foetal weeks and two–three years, all dating from the period when the home was in operation.

http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/better-honoured-death-life 

Church and State conspired to cover-up Tuam babies horror

The revelation last Friday by the commission investigating the Tuam mother and baby home scandal that infant skeletons had been found in underground chambers at the site has led to horrified headlines, not just at home but around the world.

That's not surprising.  The story (not entirely accurate) that the remains of hundreds of children had been "dumped" in a "sewage pit" by the nuns who ran the home over several decades was shocking enough to get international coverage.  On Friday night I saw it on the BBC, Sky News, and American and European TV channels.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/irishvoice/church-state-there-s-plenty-of-blame-to-go-round-over-tuam-babies-horror 

The only way Tuam Babies will get justice – send in the Criminal Assets Bureau

It was all true. Every word. 796 babies, dumped in a septic tank in Tuam.
Last Friday, the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation announced it has found “significant amounts of human remains” in what was a disused sewage system at the back of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam.
As the Taoiseach said, ‘this didn’t happen in the dawn of history. This happened in our time’. The Commission’s finding brings vindication for those who were vilified for their search for the truth.

http://avondhupress.ie/way-tuam-babies-will-get-justice-send-criminal-assets-bureau/ 

'If there's bodies just leave them there':

The historian who spearheaded the campaign to discover the fate of 800 children who died at a former Catholic home for unmarried mothers and their children in Ireland was told 'just leave them there'. 

Catherine Corless, 62, discovered there were 798 death certificates for children at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, but only one burial certificate. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4281094/Historian-told-stop-research-leading-mass-grave-find.html 

50th anniversary commemoration of Magdalene Laundry in New Ross

This Sunday marks 50 years since the closure of the Good Shepherd's Magdalene Laundry in New Ross and to remember the victims of the laundry the fourth annual Flowers for Magdalenes memorial ceremony takes place at 2 p.m. at St Stephen's cemetery, Irishtown.

http://www.independent.ie/regionals/newrossstandard/news/50th-anniversary-commemoration-of-magdalene-laundry-in-new-ross-35487342.html 

Mother and Baby Home group says Tuam case ‘tip of the iceberg’

A group representing survivors of ‘Mother and Baby’ homes has described the Tuam case as ‘just the tip of the iceberg’ – and says the worst is yet to come.
It follows yesterday’s revelation that the remains of a “significant” number of young children and babies have been found at the site of the former home at the Athenry Road.

http://connachttribune.ie/mother-and-baby-home-group-says-tuam-case-tip-of-the-iceberg-333/ 

it was a priest-ridden theocracy which treated women and children as scum

he history books are all wrong. Ireland after the Brits left was never a republic – it was a priest-ridden theocracy which treated woman and children as scum.
How else can you explain the secret burial of hundreds of babies by demonic nuns in a disused septic tank? The land of saints and scholars was really a Catholic North Korea which had concentration camps for children born outside wedlock and their mothers.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/ireland-after-brits-left-never-9961433 

Revealed: Thousands of Irish orphans were used as ‘drug guinea pigs’

Over 2,000 care-home kids were secretly vaccinated against diphtheria in the 1930s in medical trials undertaken by international drugs giant Burroughs Wellcome, Irish media reveal. Among the testing sites was a recently discovered mass grave.

The medical records cited by the Irish Daily Mail show that some 2,051 children and babies across several Irish care homes may have been subjected to the practice.

https://www.rt.com/news/164884-irish-baby-scandal-vaccines/ 

Minor’s rape: Three nuns seek anticipatory bail

Three of the five Catholic nuns named as accused in the case pertaining to the rape of a 16-year-old girl by 48-year-old Syro-Malabar Catholic priest in Kottiyoor, Kannur, on Monday applied for anticipatory bail even as the Kerala Police probing the incident approached the court for getting the rapist priest, Fr Robin Vadakkumchery, in their custody. The rape victim had given birth to baby boy on February 7 at a Church-run hospital.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/minors-rape-three-nuns-seek-anticipatory-bail.html 

I gave birth to my child on a metal table at 18, alone in a room in a convent'

It was 1981, and though Wadding said she was not a victim of “cruelty or physical abuse”, she, like the other girls at the home, suffered emotional and psychological abuse that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. Deirdre Wadding says her time in the Cork mother and baby home in 1981 has haunted her ever since. “I shared a room with a girl who was only 13-years-old, she was a child. I was 18, she sobbed her heart out for her mother every night and I mean it was incredibly, incredibly traumatic,” she said.

http://www.thejournal.ie/bessborough-mother-and-baby-home-3273435-Mar2017/?utm_source=shortlink

Mother and baby home survivor tells how he was close to being 'left in a mass grave'

Fortunately he survived, but was dangerously close to becoming one of the 220 babies and toddlers who died at the home between 1922 and 1949.  A mother and baby home survivor said he was close to being “one of those children left in a mass grave” after he suffered multiple illnesses as a baby.
Derek Leinster was born in the Protestant Bethany Home, in Rathgar, Dublin, in 1941. At four-and-a-half-months old he was “torn” from his mother’s arms and left to suffer through horrific diseases like pneumonia and diphtheria.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/mother-baby-home-survivor-tells-9979304 

Dublin City Magdalene site may contain human remains, expert warned

Dublin city's senior archaeologist has told the private developer of a former Catholic institution that the site may contain human burials. Dr Ruth Johnson indicated that because the property at The Crescent, Donnybrook, was a former Magdalene Laundry, it could contain remains.

Significantly, her observation was made as part of the planning process in September 2016, five months before the confirmed discovery of children's remains at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam last week.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/dublin-city-magdalene-site-may-contain-human-remains-expert-warned-35508754.html 

Survivors call for meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny over deaths at institutions for unmarried mothers and their babies

SURVIVORS of institutions for unmarried mothers and their babies have called for an urgent meeting with the Taoiseach over demands to extend an inquiry into deaths in the homes.

A commission set up to investigate alleged abuse at one Catholic Church facility in Tuam, Co Galway has excavated part of a burial site and found a “significant” quantity of human remains in “underground chambers”.

https://www.thesun.ie/news/677068/survivors-call-for-meeting-with-taoiseach-enda-kenny-over-deaths-at-institutions-for-unmarried-mothers-and-their-babies/ 

Names of dead infants at Bessborough and Roscrea were given to the HSE in 2011

his revelation shows the State was aware of the vast number of deaths in Bessborough in Cork and Sean Ross Abbey Roscrea three years before the Tuam babies scandal made global headlines.
The Irish Examiner has previously revealed that concerns over infant mortality rates and other practices at Tuam and Bessborough were raised by senior HSE personnel in 2012. A report about concerns over Bessborough deaths was forwarded to both the Department of Health and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs that year.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/names-of-dead-infants-at-bessborough-and-roscrea-were-given-to-the-hse-in-2011-444576.html 

OMMENT Tuam’s tiny victims had no voice then - which is why we must shout for them now

Joseph Ward was aged just seven months when he died in 1928. Mary Teresa Drury was a year old when she died in 1931. In 1937, Mary Kate Cahill was two weeks old when she died. In 1943, a baby died a day after being born – and is known now simply as Baby McNamara.

Vincent Keogh was five months (1947); Patrick Hardiman was six months (1952); Imelda Halloran was two years old (1954); Gerard Connaughton was 11 months (1956), and Dolores Conneely was seven months (1959). 

https://www.her.ie/news/comment-tuams-tiny-victims-no-voice-must-shout-now-336097 

Mass Grave of Babies Found in Catholic Home Care Compound

Authorities found a mass grave of babies in a Catholic home care compound in Ireland. The remains of the infants ranged from newborn to three-years-old. The location of the mass grave was in the sewers of a former Church-run home which took in unmarried mothers in Ireland.
The Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic nuns, run the home from 1925 to 1961. They took in unmarried pregnant women to help them to give birth. The system separated the women from their children. The nuns raised the children until an adoption came by while the mothers stayed elsewhere.

http://www.dailydisruption.com/mass-grave-of-babies-found-in-catholic-home-care-compound/7751 

Tuam babies 'could number 8,000' as Catholic League labels the controversy 'fake news'

Last week "significant quantities" of human remains were discovered at the site of the former mother and baby home in Co. Galway.

Speaking on Morning Ireland this morning, Paul Redmond, chairperson of the Coalition of Mother and Baby home Survivors said that he expects the commission of investigation to ascertain that between 7,000 and 8,000 babies died in homes in Ireland from the 1920s up until the 60s.

https://www.joe.ie/news/tuam-babies-number-8000-catholic-league-labels-controversy-fake-news-580193 

Tuam events were facilitated by wider society

The remains of a significant number of babies and infants found at the site of a former mother and baby home at Tuam is one further example — and not the last, I suspect — of the systemic abuse that occurred in the archipelago of institutions that existed in post-independence Ireland.
The abuse in all its forms is, of course, horrific, terrifying and shameful. It begs so many questions. How, for example, could it occur in institutions which are meant to espouse Christian values such as kindness, charity, love for thy neighbour, and good will?

http://www.irishexaminer.com/viewpoints/analysis/tuam-events-were-facilitated-by-wider-society-444465.html 

Locals are deeply worried about where Tuam babies will be laid to rest

I am the chairperson of the Tuam Babies Graveyard Committee.The committee was formed in August 2013. This group of like-minded people wished to do the right thing for the children who were buried in the grounds of what was once the St Mary's old orphanage.

It was known locally as 'The Home'. Our initial aims were simple:

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/locals-are-deeply-worried-about-where-tuam-babies-will-be-laid-to-rest-35504505.html

Tuam Babies: “It would be... kinder to strangle these children at birth” said doctor

“A mass grave containing the remains of babies and young children has been discovered at a former Catholic orphanage in Ireland, government-appointed investigators announced Friday in a finding that offered the first conclusive proof following a historian's efforts to trace the fates of nearly 800 children who perished there.”

“A great many people are always asking what is the good of keeping these children alive? I quite agree that it would be a great deal kinder to strangle these children at birth than to put them out to nurse.” -- Doctor Ella Webb, June 18, 1924, speaking about illegitimate children in care in Ireland at the time.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/tuam-babies-it-would-be-kinder-to-strangle-these-illegitimate-children-at-birth 

I believe one of my brothers was adopted illegally in the US'

Dublin woman Anna Corrigan said she does not believe that both of her baby brothers born in the Tuam Mother and Baby Home actually died there.

She believes her brother William may have been adopted illegally in the US as no death certificate was issued for him, she said.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/i-believe-one-of-my-brothers-was-adopted-illegally-in-the-us-35504507.html 

Garda is set to probe bones find at Galway mum and baby home

Police in the Republic are liaising with the State coroner investigating the Tuam Mother and Children's Home deaths as a full criminal probe looks increasingly likely.

Last week the presence of a large number of human remains in a septic tank was confirmed at the site, which was run by the Bon Secours nuns.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/garda-is-set-to-probe-bones-find-at-galway-mum-and-baby-home-35503934.html 

Calls For Two Dublin Laundry Sites To Be Examined For Graves

There are calls for the sites of two former Magdalene laundries in Dublin to be examined for children's graves. It follows a socking report last week that showed hundreds of remains had been discovered in Tuam. On Friday it was confirmed that significant quantities of human remains had been found in a septic tank on the site of a mother and baby home in Co. Galway.

http://www.98fm.com/Calls-For-Two-Dublin-Laundry-Sites-To-Be-Examined-For-Graves- 

Magdalene memorial remembers those buried in unmarked graves

Hundreds gathered yesterday to remember the women who suffered in the Magdalene Laundries, many of whom were buried in mass graves. The event marked the sixth annual Flowers for Magdalenes.

Mary Merritt (85) was in the laundries for 14 years. "Every one of those women should have had a separate grave with their name on it," she said. "They cut my hair, they took my name, they took my clothes, but I wouldn't let them take my spirit."

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/magdalene-memorial-remembers-those-buried-in-unmarked-graves-35504513.html 

Latest: Groups representing families of babies who died in mother and baby homes not informed

Groups representing the families of babies who died in mother-and-baby homes were not informed that remains have been found at one site.
Today's media coverage was the first time that many relatives were officially told there were remains at the site in Tuam. Anna Corrigan's two brothers were born in the home - but a death certificate was only ever issued for one of them.

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/latest-groups-representing-families-of-babies-who-died-in-mother-and-baby-homes-not-informed-779840.html 

Residents fear that the mass grave in Tuam may stretch beyond the mother and baby home and below local houses.

An information meeting for the residents of the Tobar Jarlath and Dublin Road estates in Tuam was called at short notice yesterday by Galway County Council. But only three residents attended the meeting with local elected representatives and council staff.

According to Cllr Peter Roche, short notice was the reason for the lower-than-expected turnout. Cllr Roche confirmed that there were concerns locally that the site might be bigger than first thought and could actually stretch into some private residences.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/fears-that-tuam-mass-grave-may-extend-beneath-local-houses-35500870.html

'It was a prison': Man born in Irish orphanage where mass grave discovered demands apology

A man who was born in a former Catholic home for orphans and unwed mothers in Ireland where a mass child grave has been discovered is demanding an apology from church and the government.
P.J. Haverty was born at the state-sanctioned and church-run Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway County, in 1951. He lived there until he was 6 1/2 years old, at which point he was put into foster care against his mother's will, he said.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-friday-edition-1.4008615/it-was-a-prison-man-born-in-irish-orphanage-where-mass-grave-discovered-demands-apology-1.4008622 

Babies that died in Tuam horror home were thrown out 'like garbage' says survivor

"There were hundreds of children at the home. To my eyes as a little child, it was like a rabid colony".  Infants and children that died in the Tuam Mother and Baby horror home were thrown out “like garbage”, a survivor of the institution told the Irish Mirror.
JP Rodgers was born in the home in 1947 and at just one years old he was separated from his mother Bridie, who was sent to the Magdalene Laundry in Galway city.

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/babies-died-tuam-horror-home-9965591 

I ended up in hospital covered in scabs' - abuse survivor Rosemary Adaser on life in a mother-and-baby home

Rosemary Adaser spoke about the abuse she suffered growing up mixed-race in Ireland's mother-and-baby homes and industrial schools.

Ms Adaser was born to an Irish mother, who worked as a telephonist at Dublin's Rotunda Hospital, and a black Ghanaian father, who worked as a doctor there. Shortly after her birth, her mother was forced to place her in St Clare's Convent in Stamullen, Co Meath.
 

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/i-ended-up-in-hospital-covered-in-scabs-abuse-survivor-rosemary-adaser-on-life-in-a-motherandbaby-home-35502135.html