RedHanded - Update on the Tuam 796

Episode Date: January 15, 2021

In 1975 the skull of a child was discovered on the site of an old mother and baby home in Tuam, Ireland. It lead to the discovery of hundreds more children's remains that had been disguarded by nuns who ran the home. Years later fearless campaigner and historian Catherine Corless made sure everyone knew about it and enough pressure was put on the Irish government that an investigation commission was formed. The Mother and Baby Home report has now been released and Hannah has brought you everything you need to know. Not for the faint of heart. All other sources can be found at www.redhandedpodcast.com   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, everyone. As you've probably heard, there have been a lot of developments in Ireland recently concerning the inquest into the mother and baby homes. If you don't know what a mother and baby home is, in Ireland it's where unwed mothers were sent to birth their children. While they lived at the homes, they worked for free. When their children were born, they were separated from them and sent back into the world.

The baby would then stay at the home until it was old enough to leave, be adopted, or in a lot of cases, the baby would die. Worst of all, the women and girls, some as young as 12 or 11, who were sent to the homes, were told that the church was doing them a favour by dealing with the consequences of their sins for them. The last mother and baby home in Ireland closed its doors in 1998. This is far from ancient history, so don't be fooled. The most famous of the mother and baby homes is in Tum in Galway. The deaths of 796 children that cannot be connected to any burial records

were discovered by homegrown hero Catherine Corliss. You can hear the whole story in our episode. It's episode 96. It's called The Tum 796. If you haven't listened to it or if you need a reminder go back and listen to that episode and then come back to me in this update but if you're going to keep listening this is what you need to know human remains were found at the site of an old mother and baby home and it was strongly suspected that the dead 796 children that had no burial records had in fact been buried under the mother and baby home itself

in a disused septic tank. Without Catherine Corliss, we probably wouldn't know that. A commission was put together to investigate this and the atrocities committed in the mother and baby homes in the name of the Lord all over Ireland. The commission has been working away at their findings for five years and this week the report was revealed. And you will see everywhere that aspects of this report were leaked. It made it to the press before those affected by the report were able to see it

for themselves. This has been described by Ireland's government as regrettable. So what does this report say? Essentially, it tells us what we already know. That's the real tragedy of mother and baby homes. Even though the Catholic Church and all sorts of orders of different types of nuns have said how shocked they are by the findings of this report, the fact is that they're lying. Everyone knew what was happening. No one cared. The narrative you will have come across when reading about this story up until now from politicians, clerics and civilians alike is, that's just how it was back then. But you and I both know that 1998 hardly counts as back then. The full report collated by the Commission was delivered on 30 October 2020.

There were concerns that large chunks of the report would be sealed in archives for up to 30 years, which arguably could mean that survivors of the mother and baby homes would never get to read them. The government insists that this is to ensure that vital information is not destroyed when the Commission is legally dissolved. But quite a lot of people are not sure that that's really the reason. According to the Minister for Children, Roderick O'Gorman, there is now a database based upon the findings of the Mother and Baby Homes Bill, which has been developed to help people born in mother and baby homes to trace family members and heritage.

However, some details have been redacted because they contain sensitive personal information. Significant portions of the report are not included on this database and because they're sealed, we don't actually know what they are. The Retention of Records Bill proposed in 2019 by the Education Minister proposes to seal from the public every document gathered or made by bodies that have previously investigated or made payments to survivors of industrial and reformatory schools. This bill wants to seal those records for 75 years.

That means that survivors can't get a hold of their own testimony ever. They'll die before their stories are public record. The Mother and Baby Homes Commission's archive is not included in this bill, but it doesn't seem like transparency or accountability for the tragedies of the state are at the top of anybody's list. Yet politicians like the Education Minister, Joe McHugh, are insisting that this is to protect the privacy of the people whose lives are told in those documents.

And maybe it is. But maybe it isn't. The Mother and Baby Home Report is now publicly available. Well, the bits that aren't redacted. And you can go to our website for a link to that. I've put it in the episode description. And as I said earlier, the report, well, parts of it were leaked to newspapers days before it was intended to be published. And here is what the report confirmed. That significant human remains were found at the site of the mother and baby home in Shume in Galway. That 56,000 women gave birth to 57,000 children in the 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes

between 1922 and 1998. And of those 57,000 children, 9,000 died. That's one in seven. At Chum specifically, it was confirmed that the structure under the site of the mother and baby home could be dated to 1937, and, quote, it seems clear that many of the children who died in the Chum home are buried in the chambers described. There were 20 of these chambers. The report denies that these chambers were specifically built as a crypt as, quote, they did not provide for the dignified interment of human remains. The report also confirmed that it was, quote, likely that the burials of the children in the chambers

were on the orders of the sisters of the Bon Secours order, who ran the home. The order have issued a classically shocked statement. More than 900 children have been found to have died at the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork, but we still don't know where most of those children, and no doubt babies, are buried. The Commission has only found 64 of these children's remains.

More than 950 children were found to have died at the Mother and Baby Homes in Dublin between 1920 and 1977. After their deaths, they were sent to medical schools for anatomical studies. The home babies, as they were widely known, were also sent to take part in vaccination trials without anyone's consent, least of all theirs or their mother's. The report identifies seven of these trials that took place between 1934 and 1973. Many home babies were sent to Catholic families in the United States, but the report doesn't confirm whether these babies were actually sold or not. Many suspect that they were, there was money changing hands. There are many more accounts in the report of the abuse that

children and their mothers endured at the hands of the church in accounts in the report of the abuse that children and their mothers endured at the hands of the church in these homes. Some of the most stomach-churning include women and girls undergoing childbirth with no pain relief, whilst being verbally degraded and slapped by nuns who told them that this birth was a punishment from God for their very obvious sin. In putting this update together for you, I've been reading what's out there in the press and I've collected a couple of survivor stories. Catherine Coffey O'Brien grew up in an orphanage and got pregnant at 16 years old.

She was referred to the Besbra Mother and Baby Home in Cork by a social worker. She was told that she would live in a flat and go back into education while she waited for her baby to arrive. But as soon as a nun showed up, Catherine knew that she'd been tricked. There was no way she was going to give up her baby. But she had to go to the home anyway. At the home, Catherine was given a new name and that was Jane. She was told never to reveal her true identity to the other women and girls in the home. Catherine was expected to polish floors and perform all manner of labours. The food was so terrible that many of the more heavily pregnant

women lost their teeth to calcium deficiency. Catherine was reminded by the nuns every day that she was worthless, and told, quote, if you have a boy, we won't have a problem. We have beautiful families waiting for him. But if you have a girl, we will definitely have a problem. Babies under 10 kilos and mixed race babies were not deemed adoptable either, and they were sent to industrial and reform schools, the ones that may have their records sealed for 75 years. During her pregnancy, Catherine was injected by a mystery woman with mystery drugs and had endless amounts of blood drawn. No one ever told her why. Catherine managed to escape the home by running away and sleeping in a bush until she could make it back to the father of her baby's family.

And even though she got out, she was terrified of doctor's appointments in case someone would find out where she had come from and sent her back. The nuns did find her, but when they did, Catherine was engaged, so there was nothing they could do. Mary Harney was born in the Besbra home in 1949. She was told that her mother had died and was adopted by a local family. When Mary was 17, she found out that her mother was not only alive, but that the nuns had always known where she lived. There are thousands of stories like this, and I encourage you to go and read them.

The Vatican has very graciously backed the campaign for the bodies of the children found at tomb to be buried on consecrated ground, which seems very big of them. Archbishop Neary originally suggested that the septic tank the babies are buried in just be blessed by a priest and everyone move on. This was deemed by my personal hero, Catherine Corliss, to be completely unacceptable. So the dignified re-internment of the remains found in the tanker tomb

on consecrated ground has been described as a priority by the church. Tishok Mihal Martin has made a public apology this week and here are some of the things that he said. I can't promise that they're in the right order. He said, We embraced a perverse religious morality and control, judgmentalism and moral certainty, but shunned our daughters. On behalf of the government, the state and its citizens, I apologise for the profound generational wrong visited upon Irish mothers and their children who ended up in a mother and baby home or a county home. As the Commission says plainly, they should not have been there.

Authority was not exerted and the state's duty of care was not upheld. The state failed The apologies keep on coming. The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, has also apologised, saying, quote, For the long-lasting hurt and emotional distress that has resulted, I unreservedly apologise to the survivors and to all those who are personally impacted by the realities the report uncovers. The Pope begged for forgiveness when he visited Ireland in 2018. Everyone is very sorry, but it's hard to feel like it's not too little too late.

And the report itself has come under harsh criticism for being a bit of a cop-out. The Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors have stated, quote, this report is fundamentally incomplete as it ignores the larger issue of the forced separation of single mothers and their babies since the foundation of the state as a matter of state policy. And I have to agree. The report actually reads, quote, there is no evidence that women were forced to enter mother and baby homes by church or state authorities.

Most women had no alternative. So if you have no alternative, isn't that a type of force? And there does seem to be a hesitation to blame the state or the church for the mother and baby home atrocities. The finger seems to be pointing at culture at large, which to me feels a little bit like a giant extension of the that's just the way it was back then mentality. The homes were not owned by the state, but they were partially state funded. And you would be forgiven for thinking that in certain periods of Irish history the church and the state were fairly inextricable. Anna Corrigan heads a survivors group and is calling for the state and religious orders to

take full responsibility for what happened. She also rejects the idea that women weren't forced into homes saying quote they may not have physically done it, but the culture at the time left many families with no choice. I know of cases where pregnant girls were condemned from the pulpit by a parish priest, leaving them with no choice but to flee. I'm aware of another case where a parish priest called to a father's house and told him in no uncertain terms

to get his pregnant daughter out of the parish. The father put her on the back of his bicycle and drove her to the tomb home where she had her child. This kind of bullying and intimidation was happening all over the country, so don't tell me the hands of the Catholic Church were clean. Anna had two brothers in tomb who have been reported dead. The younger brother, whose name is William, has no death certificate and Anna believes it's possible he could still be alive in America.

Everyone's very sorry, but what are they going to do about it? The victims of the mother and baby homes will be paid compensation. Apparently the government are expecting the church to pick up the bill on that one. The Department of Children and Equality is allegedly setting up a legal advice scheme for mother and baby home survivors. The Taoiseach has made a number of memorialisation, educational, research and national reflection commitments saying,

Throughout this report, former residents talk of a feeling of shame for the situation they found themselves in. The shame was not theirs. It was ours. A counselling scheme has also been set up and a restorative recognition scheme promised. The National University of Ireland Galway has launched the TUME Oral History Project, which aims to be survivor-led and a platform for survivors and an educational resource for children to come.

The Home Babies Report has been sent to Ireland's Director of Public Prosecutions to figure out whether there will be any criminal investigation. In an attempt to manage expectations, I expect, the Taoiseach has already said that this might be a little bit difficult because the report covers atrocities that happened over so many years. Brid Smith, who's the Te Oktadola, which means like Member of Parliament for Dublin South Central, has said sorry isn't good enough.

She says, We've heard apologies many times before, but what's needed now is action. There are tens of thousands of babies that were abused and there are thousands of thousands whose bodies are lying in the grounds of institutions all over this country. Smith is calling for a criminal investigation and assets of religious orders to be seized to reparate survivors. Amnesty International agrees and has called for a criminal probe

alleging that the state, not wider society, was primarily responsible. And Catherine Corliss, whose fearless campaign shed light on the whole thing, has distanced herself from the Catholic Church. Here's what she said. The nuns left in 1961. They left and closed that gate without marking the graveyard, and it's because they were illegitimate. How can I believe in a church that won't look after its most vulnerable? I don't want anything to do with the Catholic Church. It's a business. That's what it is. Catherine's dream is to meet the 796 babies whose names would never have appeared anywhere if it wasn't for her.

She says she'd love to meet them and, quote, I'd probably say it was a privilege. That's the latest TUME update for you. If anything else happens, we'll let you know. Thanks for listening. We'll see you soon. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudian Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come.

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