Tag Archives: Tuam Babies

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Meanwhile, in today’s Irish Daily Mail, Alison O’Reilly and Neil Michael write [not online]:

A second burial ground has been discovered near the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam. It adjoins the controversial septic tank site at the centre of the baby deaths’ scandal that erupted in May. According to archive plans, it is at least three times the size. Documents also show Galway County Council planners have known about the additional burial ground since at least 1979.

Catherine Corless, who discovered that 796 babies died in the Tuam mother and baby home run by the Sisters of Bon Secours, has already passed details of the grave on to Children’s Minister James Reilly. The researcher met the Minister three weeks ago as part of discussions he is having with interested parties, before he draws up the terms of reference for the Government’s investigation into the homes.
…

[Ms Corless’] latest discovery shows the area of land used to bury babies who died at the home could be considerably larger than first thought.

Previously: Reputable History

Power To Exhume

Investigating the Tuam Mothers and Babies Home: A Question of Human Rights

Irish Centre for Human Rights (NUI Galway)

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Translation:

A gruesome discovery has been widely reported by the media.
It is estimated that the bodies of almost 800 children who died between 1925 and 1961 are buried in a concrete tank in a former Catholic convent in the town of Tuam n the west of Ireland. Managed by the Sisters of Bon Secours de Notre Dame Auxiliatrice of Paris, a French Catholic religious order, the Sean Ross centre specialised in looking after children abandoned by their mothers after birth out of wedlock. It closed in 1961 before being demolished. “Someone had mentioned to me that there was a cemetery for newborns, but what I found was much more than that,” said historian Catherine Corless, the person behind this discovery. While conducting research on the archives of the former convent of Tuam, the historian found that 796 children had been buried without a coffin or tombstone.
The Congregation Notre-Dame de Bon Secours is a French congregation with its headquarters in Paris. The headquarters of the International Congregation of Bon Secours, Bon Secours Generalat, is located in the Mother House at 28 Rue Notre Dame des Champs in the fifth arrondissement.
It is impossible that the headquarters does not have a record of the “province of Ireland” and especially the Convent of Tuam, over such a long period (1925-1961).
The Catholic Church in Ireland has said it will voluntarily participate in this enquiry.
Officials of the Congregation should spontaneously transmit all records concerning this matter to the authorities of the Republic of Ireland.
If they do not, they are complicit in the crime.
Has the Congregation of Bon Secours anything to say?
We await, with interest, its response or silence.

A petition from France’s Fedaration of Free Thought.

Signée here.

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Saskia Weber and Terry Prone of the Communications Clinic

You may recall the unresolved Tuam Babies saga.

During the Summer, French documentary maker Saskia Weber sought access to members of the order running the Mother and Baby home at the centre of this international story..

The reply was swift.

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And fairly blunt, in fairness.

In reality, between 1925-1961 when the home was run by the Bon Secours Order of nuns, 79 per cent of children born there died there.

The whereabouts of their bodies are unknown.

Even the head of the order conceded to one relative:

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And if she doesn’t know…

Meanwhile, Ms Weber’s documentary will be shown on France 3 by independent producers Sunset Presse, whose Les Blanchisseuses de Magdalen (1998) inspired the making of The Magdalene Sisters (2002).

See?

PR works.

Saskia email Via Kevin Higgins

French TV Documentary (JPRodgers)

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The grounds (top) where an unmarked mass grave apparently containing the remains of nearly 800 infants who died at the Bon Secours mother-and-baby home in Tuam Co Galway from 1925-1961 rests. Attorney General Máire Whelan (above) 

Solicitor Kevin Higgins and blogger Izzy Kamikaze spoke to Philip Boucher-Hayes on RTÉ One’s Liveline this afternoon in relation to the Tuam Babies story.

During the segment, Mr Higgins pointed out that the Attorney General Máire Whelan has the power to order a coroner to hold inquests into the deaths of any remains exhumed at the Tuam site. He said if she chooses not to exercise this power, she will inevitably face a legal challenge.

Philip Boucher-Hayes: “Kevin, you believe that with the, sorry, no pun intended, with the digging, but the trawling that you have been doing through the archives and the documents and so on, that the legal argument now for exhuming whatever is buried in the ground at the site in Tuam, and for holding coroner’s inquests, that that could no longer be resisted.”

Kevin Higgins: “I think that’s is absolutely true. I think the evidence, including public records is such that there simply must be an excavation of the site in Tuam to establish the truth of what lies beneath. And, as you’re possibly aware, there is a very specific statutory provision which confers absolute discretion on the Attorney General. It is in fact Section 24 of Coroner’s Act 1962 and I’ll read it for you if you wish.”

Boucher-Hayes: “Oh, don’t do that. Put it into English, please.”

Higgins: “Well, actually, it’s in remarkably plain English, remarkably plain English. It says “Where the Attorney General has reason to believe that a person has died in circumstances which in his opinion make the holding of an inquest advisable he may direct any coroner to hold an inquest in relation to the death of that person”.”

Boucher-Hayes: “Ok so, basically, the Attorney General can tell a coroner to hold an inquest.”

Higgins: “Indeed, and can indeed nominate a coroner of his, or indeed as it is today, her choice. And the discretion is particular and specific to the Attorney. It’s without reference to any minister or office of the State. It is entirely, the matter entirely rests with her based on the information available to the Attorney.”

Later

Boucher-Hayes: “Is there, from what you’re hearing from Izzy and from what you’ve assembled yourself, are you absolutely sure, in your opinion, as a lawyer and as an officer of the courts that there is enough evidence there to warrant the Attorney General going, taking on board what is going to be an immensely upsetting exercise for an awful lot of people living in that area, digging up what is under there and conducting inquests on the remains of God knows how many countless infant bodies.”

Higgins: “Yes, I do. I do think the evidence is overwhelming and I do believe that the Attorney will be inevitably confronted. I, like everybody else, I have regard for the Attorney’s experience as a lawyer and as a public official and I’m sure that she is aware of the powers she possesses under this section. I’ve no doubt that she is also a Galway woman and I imagine that perhaps gives her an additional interest. This is not very many miles from her own family home. The evidence, quite frankly, Philip is indeed overwhelming. It really is a matter of when this site, perhaps the first of many, is excavated and the manner in which it is undertaken.”

Later

Higgins: “I do believe the Attorney General is giving attention in this matter, I believe that she is acutely aware of the situation in the Mother and Baby Homes. This is inevitable because the Commission of Inquiry has been set up. I have no doubt that it is a matter of immediate concern to the Attorney’s office, inevitably, because of her role. I believe that she is, as I said, quite aware of the, of the discretion which she enjoys under Section 24 of the 1962 [Coroner’s] Act and I have every confidence that that matter is being actively looked at. I think if the, if there is any, if it comes into the public domain that the Attorney has considered the matter under Section 24 and decided not to exercise that discretion she enjoys, I do believe that the likelihood will be a legal challenge to that. I would very much hope that the Attorney would take the view that the exhumation, in the first instance, of the infants at Tuam is something which should be done in the public interest and would be a very proper exercise of her power.”

Listen back here

Previously: ‘It Seems Quite Probable The Babies Are Buried In The Sewage Tanks’

A Waste Of Copy And Paste

“Must Be Mounted With A Crucifix”

(Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

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Further to the Tuam babies mystery.

Blogger Izzy Kamikaze writes:

New evidence has come to light in the Tuam Babies case, which tends to support the view of local researcher Catherine Corless – that the bodies of almost 800 children who perished at the site may be inside the disused sewage system of the Workhouse which occupied the site prior to the opening of the Mother and Baby Home (a Catholic institution for unmarried mothers and their children.)

“…The illustration (above) is a “section” from the architectural plans of Tuam Workhouse, later the Mother and Baby Home. A section is a drawing showing a one-dimensional slice of a building or structure. Being one-dimensional, it doesn’t show the depth of the structure, just the height and width. This “cesspool” is 9’ 9” tall (just under 3 metres) and appears more than 3 metres wide. It has a high arched ceiling and looks much more how we might expect a vault or tomb to look than what it actually is – a sewage tank.”

“…I might as well come out and say it – it seems quite probable the #800deadbabies are buried in the sewage tanks.”

More here: Vaults Under Tuam Babies Site Are Part Of Sewage System (Izzy Kamikaze)

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Maria Dromey writes:

“Just hoping you could pop this event up for your London based readers. It’s for a vigil which is planned to take place outside the Irish embassy [17 Grosvenor Place, SW1] next Thursday (July 3) at 7pm calling for an investigation into the Tuam mass grave as well as other Mother and Children homes in Ireland.It’s being organised by the Justice for 800 Tuam babies group.Thank you.”

London Vigil For Tuam (Facebook)

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Causes of deaths of babies apparently buried in a mass grave at Tuam Mother and Child home.

Entire list available below (see link).

Includes death from eczema.

Roll of stolen childhoods revealed in death records of 796 babies and children who were buried in mass grave in Tuam mother and baby home (Niamh O’Connor, Sunday World)

Marasmus?

(Sunday World)

 

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Eoghan Regan writes:

“I am a freelance journalist based in Dublin and myself and a colleague  Joseph Conroy have put together a 2:30 minute video package of the Tuam Babies march yesterday afternoon…”