Yearly Archives: 2014
[Top – Maurice Cummins, centre – Marc MacSharry, bottom – Paddy Burke]
The Seanad was suspended for half an hour this morning after a row broke out following claims of a conflict of interest made by Fine Gael Senator Maurice Cummins against Fianna Fáil Senator Marc MacSharry’s membership of the banking inquiry.
Cathaoirleach Paddy Burke was forced to rise to his feet (woo!) as Senator MacSharry said:
“In my years in the Senate, it is an outrage, an absolute outrage”
and later addressing the Cathaoirleach:
“What’s outrageous is what you’ve allowed the chair to do to a member of the House. It’s a disgrace. But you’re bringing this, you’ve the chair and this House into disrepute to allow this disgraceful impugning of the character of a member”
Later, Senator Paul Bradford tried to calm matters by saying:
“We are all grown adults and surely if we can adjourn for one twenty minutes or half an hour it should be possible to resolve this difficulty”
We’re not entirely sure about that assertion Senator Bradford in light of the evidence presented.
Update: Seanad leader withdraws conflict of interest claims (RTÉ News)
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.
On Saturday, May 31, Neil Michael, in the Irish Daily Mail reported that there may be three other mass graves at three other locations, namely: Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, where 790 children are believed to be buried; Bessborough, Co Cork, where it’s believed an estimated 2,000 children may have been buried before it closed in 1996 and St Peter’s in Castlepollard in Co. Westmeath, where it’s believed 300 to 500 children died.
Mr Michael also reported that the most common cause of deaths was marasmus – a form of malnutrition.
On Sunday, June 1, Alison O’Reilly, in the Irish Mail on Sunday, reported that there may be a fifth mass grave, containing an unknown number of bodies, on the grounds of the Sisters of Mercy Convent in Loughrea, Co. Galway. She reported that the site was used to bury the children who died in St Brigid’s Industrial School which was there for almost 100 years before it closed in 1967.
But what of Dublin?
Dr Lindsey Earner-Byrne, in chapter 7 of her book Mother and Child: Maternity and Child Welfare in Dublin 1922-1960 wrote:
“Dublin was the destination for many unmarried mothers, and the Department of Local Government and Public Health described the tendency as ‘somewhat remarkable’. Of the 551 illegitimate births registered in the city in 1931, only 335 were found to be ‘chargeable to the city’. Each local authority was responsible for the welfare for the illegitimate children born of women from its area. However, the social shame led many countrywomen to flee to Dublin for anonymity.”
…
“In general, Catholic unmarried mothers from Dublin who remained within the Irish system were either sent to St Patrick’s Home, Pelletstown, to one of the various magdalen asylums in the city or to the Legion of Mary hostel [Regina Coeli] established in 1930. Protestant mothers were received at the Bethany home in Orwell Road, Rathgar; these women were also accepted in Pelletstown, but the preferred option was to send mothers to homes that catered specifically for their religious needs.”
…
“In 1939 the annual inspector’s report noted that the death rates in the various unmarried mother’s homes around the country are undesirably high: Bessboro home, Cork had an infantile death rate of 47 per cent, Shan Ross Abbey, Roscrea had a death rate of 18 per cent, the Manor House, Castlepollard a rate of 7 per cent, and St Patrick’s Home, Pelletstown and the home in Tuam, County Galway had rates of 23 per cent and 15 per cent respectively. By 1943 [Inspector Alice] Lister noted that the rate in Bessboro was a staggering 61 per cent, and Shan Ross Abbey and the Tuam home had rates of 35 per cent, whereas Castlepollard and Pelletstown had shown ‘a satisfactory decrease’.”
…
“In 1945, 156 babies had been admitted to the [Regina Coeli] hostel and 48 had died. In 1946, 85 infants were admitted and 33 died of gastro-enteritis, seven of those having been admitted before January 1946. In September 1946 Dr Murphy recommended that, in order to reduce infant mortality in the institution, visiting medical officers should be appointed, a day and night nurse provided, and an isolation ward established with a separate kitchen and sterilisation unit for infant feeding. Despite regular meetings between [chief medical adviser to the Department of Local Government and Public Health, James] Deeny and the staff of the hostel, it took another year before Frank Duff, the chairman of the Legion of Mary, agreed to the employment of a doctor. In May 1948, in response to the level of infant mortality, Deeny removed the hostel’s exemption from inspection.”
Previously: Dig Up
This lunchtime.
David Stronge writes:
“Money (machine) laundering outside AIB Drumcondra [Dublin]…”
A recent linguistic zingfest by Judge Seamus Hughes (no stranger to these pages, etc)
Then Judge Hughes asked the defendant: “Where would I buy €800 worth of cannabis this morning?” “You’d have to look it up. I got a number from a man, and I had to meet a man in a car park in Golden Island,” said Henehan. “What? Oh, I thought you said ‘on a cold night’. The cannabis is already affecting your voice,” observed the judge. “Tell me, how did you know it was cannabis, and not dried nettles, or something. Sure, he might have just topped it off with cannabis or dogs’ urine,” quipped the judge.
Man fined for not buying “dried nettles” (Athlone Advertiser)
Previously: Judge Of The Day
(H/T: Ronan Emmett)
Dubliners, James Joyce’s collection of short stories was published 100 years ago this month.
TONIGHT [at the Grand Social, Lower Liffey Street, Dublin] is the launch of ‘Dubliners 100’ — an anthology edited by Thomas Morris wherein 15 Irish writers have written ‘cover versions’ of the original James Joyce stories.
Contributors include: Patrick McCabe, John Boyne, Eimear McBride, Donal Ryan, Paul Murray, Belinda McKeon and Peter Murphy who has gamely tackled the book’s best known story, ‘The Dead’.
7pm. All welcome.
LJ Quirke writes;
Tomorrow is YMCA World Challenge Day. YMCAs worldwide are putting on events and asking people to sign/ tweet photos with our declaration: ‘I stand up for young people and I want their voices to be heard’. We are asking if people will stand up for young people? Who can say no to that?
Sign the declaration here.
Tweet photos (#stand4youth) to @YMCAIreland
Concept art presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2014 for the futuristic Nanjing Zendai Himalayas Center by MAD Architects – a 560,000 m² shan shui [depicting the natural landscape] development in ancient Nanjing City featuring a lush wooded interior crisscrossed by watercourses, surrounded by ‘mountain like’ high-rise structures.
The yin to Yang Yongliang’s yang, if you will.
Currently under construction, the entire complex is due for completion in 2017.
Imagine the high-end scifi Tom Cruise will inevitably film there.