Sir, – Rosita Boland's "The trouble with the septic tank story" (Weekend, June 7th) should be compulsory reading for everyone who has been concerned about the Tuam former mother-and-baby home. Her report underlines the appalling extent of lies, distortion and hysteria that has characterised the public uproar surrounding this tragic episode of mistreatment of women pregnant out of wedlock in the Ireland of the 1920s to 1960s.
Relating the painstaking research of local historian Catherine Corless, she points out that the 796 child deaths, mostly infants, over 36 years to 1961 represented an average of 22 deaths per year. The death certificates, meticulously researched by Ms Corless, recorded various causes of death, including tuberculosis, convulsions, measles, whooping cough, influenza, bronchitis and meningitis. At various times, the Tuam home housed more than 200 children and 100 mothers.
As for the widely circulated reports of “796 babies buried in a septic tank”, Ms Boland records that the local man who recalled removing a concrete slab from a hole (not a septic tank) back in 1975 says that there were “about 20” skeletons there.
While not minimising in the least the tragic human suffering this story from Tuam reveals about the mother-and-baby homes era, this was not the Herod-like massacre of the innocents which other media, various politicians and others have sought to depict. Indeed, it is clear that the mortality rate in similar homes elsewhere in Ireland was much higher. Instead of bilious rants against the Catholic Church and religious orders, and demands for criminal investigations, people should consider the informed and measured words of Ms Corless. Perhaps it is also time to infuse our decade of commemorations with some social history studies to accompany the focus on military and political events. There might not be so much to celebrate after all! – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN O’BYRNES,
Morehampton Road,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – Breda O’Brien (“Protestant or Catholic, the short lives of these children must be given some respect”, Opinion & Analysis, June 7th) manages the considerable feat of writing an entire column relating to the deeply disturbing case of St Mary’s mother-and-child home in Tuam without once mentioning the Catholic Church.
Apparently “we” are all to blame. “We Irish pride ourselves on doing death well,” she writes. She notes that in Ireland decades ago “we denied children the right to respect in death” and we “failed to be true to the Christian ideal that no child is unwanted in the eyes of God”.
Her article could function as a lesson on the use of the passive voice. “Mothers were denied an opportunity to mourn” and “children were denied the right to an identity”. Yet nowhere does she point out who did this. She refers to avoiding “mistakes that were made” in the past. Who is she suggesting might do so?
Apparently “not enough people questioned the obsession with sexual purity” that punished women. Who was obsessed with sexual purity? Or did this obsession exist independently of people, floating in the air and coursing through our water? It is true that “Irish society ostracised and neglected single mothers and their babies” but I suggest the “powerful cultural norms” she refers to did not exist in a vacuum and nor did they spring magically into existence. They were a direct consequence of the stultifying influence of the Catholic Church in Irish education, politics and society.
“We” are most definitely not all to blame. – Yours, etc,
PADDY MONAHAN,
Clancarthy Road,
Donnycarney, Dublin 5.
Sir, – Now is the time for the Government to allow all adopted people full access to their files. The whole sorry saga of the fate of “illegitimate” citizens of this country turns up more and more horrors every year. It seems to be a litany of secrets upon secrets and shame upon shame. It is mystifying how this “Christian” country could have had such an abhorrence of unmarried women who had children. – Yours, etc,
ANNE MARIE MORAN,
Watermill Road,
Raheny,Dublin 5.
Sir, – It was only in 1995 that stillbirths were registered in this country. Therefore the number arrived at in Tuam does not include stillborn babies who were never registered. – Yours, etc,
ROSEMARY WARD,
King’s Court,
King’s Channel,
Waterford.
A chara, – Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan has announced that there will be an inquiry into mother-and-baby homes. This is in response to the discovery of the remains of babies at St Mary’s, Tuam. It is right that these deaths should be investigated and these short precious lives acknowledged and honoured.
Now is the time also to acknowledge the living people who spent time in the mother-and-baby homes. Many of the birth mothers who passed through these institutions are still living with the scars of the stigma and shame imposed on them at that time. Tens of thousands of babies were adopted from these homes. Those of us born in the mother-and-baby homes are now adults and are still caught up in the legacy of shame and secrecy.
We adopted adults in Ireland are, by law, denied access to our birth records and adoption files.
Any investigation into mother-and-baby homes will be incomplete and insincere if it does not acknowledge those of us (mothers and babies) who survived these institutions.
Surely this is the time to open up the discussion on the rights of adopted children in Ireland, time to make available the records of adoption agencies and religious orders, time to acknowledge the damage done to the birth mothers and apologise to them, time to move on from secrecy and shame to acknowledgement and openness.
It is easier to express horror at events in the past than to implement changes in the present. I hope this opportunity will not be lost. – Yours, etc,
THERESE RYAN
Ballinvoher,
Ballymote, Co Sligo.