BON SECOURS MISSION STATEMENT!!!
The Sisters of Bon Secours
Woman who exposed Tuam mass baby grave told to 'just leave them there'
Shocking confirmation that hundreds
of infants were discarded in the septic tank of a former mother and baby home
The woman who exposed the sickening Tuam mass baby grave today revealed
that she had been told: “Just leave them there.”
Today brought shocking confirmation that hundreds of infants were
discarded in the septic tank of a former mother and baby home, following recent
digs in the Galway town.
Historian Catherine Corless, 62, who drove the campaign for justice for
nearly 800 dead tots, said she was told to IGNORE their plight.
She said when she started her research it was “nicely covered in and
forgotten about”.
“I was asked, ‘What are you doing? It’s a long time ago. If there’s
bodies there just leave them’.”
And today as her search for the truth was vindicated by the Mother and
Baby Homes Commission, she said the entire area around the home, run by the Bon
Secours nuns, now needs to be fully excavated.
She obtained death certificates for 798 of the missing children.
She then discovered none were buried in any local cemeteries and her
research was made public in 2014.
The Commission was established in February 2015 to investigate alleged
abuse between 1922 and 1998.
The grim discovery of the human remains happened after a test excavation
of the site which began last November.
Some of the skeletal remains are now being analysed and the Commission
estimated their age of death as 35 foetal weeks (stillborn babies) to 2-3 old,
their deaths dating back to the 1950s.
Ms Corless spoke out as calls were made to probe the sites of 13 former
mother and baby homes around the country.
Speaking about the test excavation findings, she said: “It’s a total
relief to be honest as this could have gone either way.
"It could have been covered up as it was in the 1970s when this
investigation should have taken place.
“The county council knew at the time that there were remains there, the
guards knew it, the religious [orders] knew it and it was just all nicely
covered in and forgotten about.
"When I started this research I was asked, ‘What are you doing?
It’s a long time ago. If there’s bodies there just leave them’.
“I mean to say how could you just leave them there? The main Tuam
graveyard is quite near this area and why would those ‘illegitimate’ babies and
children just be discarded, because that’s what they were, literally discarded.
“I do believe that that graveyard extends above ground as well, because
it is known from locals there that there were burials over ground as well in
coffins and there’s a green area there, a playground, which may be over some of
the burials in coffins.
"So the whole area needs to be investigated. It wouldn’t be as big
as a football pitch but it’s near enough to it.”
Ms Corless, whose own mother was raised in one of the appalling
facilities, said: “My research revealed this [burial area] was a septic tank
for the women.
"It became defunct in the 1930s when the mother and baby home was
joined up with the main sewerage system.
"And then we came across the death certs of 796 babies and
children.
“The next step then was to see were they buried in their mothers’ or grandparents’
graveyard. That proved negative. And the question was the 798 babies, children
missing, where are they?
“And the obvious answer became apparent, that they must have been buried
within the [surroundings] of the mother and baby home in Tuam. Everything
pointed to this area being a mass grave.”
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone today described the discovery as
“sad and disturbing”.
She said: “Up to now we had rumours. Now we have confirmation that the
remains are there, and that they date back to the time of the Mother and Baby
Home.
The Commission investigating the treatment of unmarried mothers and
babies from 1922 to 1998, said they were “shocked” by what they uncovered.
It said test trenches were dug revealing two large structures, one of
which appeared to be a ‘large sewage containment system or septic tank’.
The human remains were found in the second ‘long structure’, and
distubingly human remains were found in 17 of the 20 underground chambers
contained in that structure.
A spokesperson for the Mother and Baby Homes Commission said: “The
Commission is shocked by this discovery and is continuing its investigation
into who was responsible for the disposal of human remains in this way.
“Meanwhile, the Commission has asked that the relevant State authorities
take responsibility for the appropriate treatment of the remains.
PAT SAYS:
I wonder WHO wants the Tuam Babies left where they are ?
I wonder WHO wants it all covered up?
Let me guess?
1. The Bon Secour Nuns - who now run private hospitals for the rich?
2. The Irish Catholic Bishops - who have been silent on the issue?
3. The Vatican - in case Pope Francis has to call at Tuam on the way to the KNOCK CASINO?
4. The medical profession - there were 800 + death certificates issued?
5. The pro Catholic Church members of the Gardai?
6. The pro Catholic Church politicians in Tuam and Galway?
Each of those 800 little babies should be identified and where possible returned to living family members.
800 new graves should be bought by the BON SUCKER NUNS.
800 grave memorials should be erected and paid for by the BON SUCKER NUNS.
A large monument should be erected in a prominent place in Tuam with the inscription:
IN MEMORY OF ALL THE CHILDREN
WHO WERE SECRETLY BURIED
IN CATHOLIC IRELAND
AND THEIR MOTHERS
WHO WERE VILIFIED
BY THAT SAME IRELAND
BELOW - THE BON SECOURS "VALUES"
Bishop Buckley,
ReplyDeleteYour rage and indignation are evident in your postings. Why have you never made such impassioned contributions for the babies aborted by Irish mothers in the last 50 years, the number of whom number 250,000 by a conservative reckoning.
What did or did not happen in Tuam is a matter of speculation. How many complaints were made before 2012?
Bishop Pat, we can all judge the past in the light of the present, but remember in condemning the nuns you condemn the families who hid their pregnant daughters away in their care.
Families were often forced by the Church. The church forgot its place in society, it lost it's own values.
Delete00:20, you complain about Bishop P's 'rage and indignation' at the Tuam baby scandal? What the Hell else did you expect?!
DeleteAre you Bernie Smyth, sounds like you or your elk.
ReplyDeleteHere we go again! - the "Bernie Smyth obsessive" And once again,--no, it's not Bernie Smyth.
DeleteMy oh my, whaddaya know!! Bernie Smyth has a pet elk and, not only that, it can surf the internet and type!!! Can it talk too?? Send the BBC up to Ballymena to interview this amazing elk!!!
DeleteThe Bon Secour values states that "each person has equal value" (Honestly?)
ReplyDeleteEverybody will be treated "in a manner consistent with human dignity" (You really meant everybody??)
You say you have "a highly developed sense of ethical behaviour" (Are you sure about that?)
You mention "compassion" and "sensitivity" as real cornerstones of your policy (At this point, words fail me...)
@00:20 What do you want to do? Lock up the 250k mothers in a Magdalen laundry so they can make rosary beads or wash and iron sheets from Maynooth Seminary where seminarians are spilling their seed on while having homosexual sex? Those seminarians would be committing two sins in your world. 1. committing the homosecual act and 2. not using their seed to create life. Here's some changes which the Catholic Church have resisted in Ireland:
ReplyDelete1944 – Tampons
1950 – Mother and Child Scheme
1970 – Studying in Trinity College
1973 – Married women in the Civil Service
1985 – Contraception
1986 – Divorce
1993 – Decriminalisation of homosexuality (this was before Grindr in Maynooth Seminary)
1996 – Divorce etc etc
Values above read in a very modern style of writing. Responsibility for the past can't be ignored. The babies deserve appropriate burial and monuments. It is difficult to blame the families of the past fully as they may well have been victims of their time. Might be interesting to ask the Vatican press office for a comment
ReplyDeleteThe President of The Catholic League in todays Irish Indo says it is Fake News. So this Ultra Conservative organization like the Irish Church is trying to cover it up as if it never happened. Shame on them.
ReplyDeleteHi patty good boy there. What about the families and society that facilitated the stigmatisation of single mothers and their babies? Do you have any condemnatory comments for them? Since you can lash out
ReplyDeleteThose families and that society was educated and brainwashed by the Catholic Church.
DeleteOf course they should have thought and acted differently.
God did give them a brain and rationality.
But I'm afraid the Catholic culture was all pervasive.
They do stand guilty as "collabotators" of the RC junta.
And it is the moral duty of all who recognise the brainwashing to recognise its full effects on themselves as well as educating others. As an ex-Catholic myself, I think it will take my whole life to move on to the point where my entire life is lived in a conscious, adult way.
DeleteI am half Irish and half English. I am now retired. When I was 17 one of my school friends got herself pregnant and I was asked to be bridesmaid. My Irish mother ranted that I couldn't be as people would think I was like her "People who lie down with dogs catch fleas". My father coming from farming stock just said "Its not the end of the world. Its only a little love child. Who says marriage starts at the wedding?". My friend has now been married for 45 years to the boy. She has travelled the world and lives in a house worth £1m. I defied my mother. I stuck by my friend and was bridesmaid at the wedding. I always found my mother could be very harsh.
ReplyDeleteWell done, good and faithful servant.
DeleteWell done Jane.
DeleteReminds me of my own mother's RC brainwashed views.
Refused to go to a close family member's wedding because his bride was pregnant. My father, a quiet gentleman "put his foot down" saying he'd go without her, and tell everybody who asked why she wasn't there. She went.
She refused to go to her youngest brother's wedding because his bride was "not from a good family or area".
While she considered herself a "good catholic" and helped many a "poor crittur", with hindsight I know that was as much to bolster her own sense of "the lady bountiful" rather than any true charity. She was a "holier than thou" severely critical person.
Only much later have I understood her to have been a product of her upbringing and RC narrow world view.
MMM
Jane God bless ya. You could write a best selling work of fiction
DeleteHe completed his engineering degree at Manchester University. After working in the UK he went to work in California. The house that they bought 35 years in England ago, they kept and is now worth £1m. They rented abroad. Such figures are not unusual in UK or Dublin. They were are both very bright and ambitious people.
Delete@14:58, is that the monologue to the book? I'd say it will make for great reading. Perhaps a nomination for best fiction of the year
DeleteToday at easily identifiable locations throughout the world countless children are dying of malnutrition and the diseases that go with it. Even if there are good people with them to be of some small assistance it is unlikely that the observance of funeral niceties is a priority for anyone.
ReplyDeleteIn our own society the pro-life fanatics let themselves down very badly when their single issue fails to extend to the alleviation of the child poverty on their own doorstep.
The Bon Secours 'compassion' is only available to those who can afford it. How much money did they make from 'caring' for the children in Tuam? What did they do with the money?
ReplyDeleteThey built private hospitals for the rich, bishops; priests and nuns.
DeleteSo if you've lots of money you can by-pass the waiting list and be treated by nuns. bottom line is nuns are capitalists!
DeleteNo, I don't believe the pro-life supporters do let themselves down. Not at all. Many of them work very hard to raise funds for Trocaire and a charity called Concern. Nearer home,we have people who work hard for St Vincent de Paul, both in continual fundraising and things like giving real practical help in households where there is poverty or alcohol abuse etc. I know also of supporters who man the Lifeline phones and who help young teenage mothers who need time to continue their schooling. Please be fair! They are far from perfect but I don't think they let themselves down.
ReplyDeleteIreland has not just been opressed in the past but repressed. Much of this Injustice is only coming to the surface now
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. You are right about the Knock casino. Knock apparition of 1879, the real truth - www.miraclesceptic.com/knock.html
ReplyDeleteIn a village of about a dozen homes and a Parish Church called Knock in Co ... said though that the real figure is about twenty (page 8, The Apparition at Knock).
Dubious Apparition of Knock
www.miraclesceptic.com/knockhoax.html
The suspect in the Knock Apparition Hoax - Cavanagh
www.miraclesceptic.com/archdeaconcavanaghsuspect.html
Dubious Apparition of Knock
www.miraclesceptic.com/knock-thequestions.html
Nobody cares how much money is got from old people who should hold on to it.
Archbishop Neary is saying he is shocked at the treatment of those babies in Tuam. That stuff would have been an open secret - what else could it be its over 700 bodies - and if priests and parish committees did not care then why are we asked to believe Neary cares now and he did join a form of religion notorious for control and lies and bigotry. The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk would be very credible today.
11.36 Don't get me started about Trocaire. Where do they get the thousands of pounds and euro for their current tv adverts. Where do they get their thousands of pounds and euro taking Irish Bishops like the Bishop of Down & Connor last year on all expenses paid trips to Africa - from the Trocaire boxes of course. I contacted Trocaire in Belfast about this all expenses paid trip at the time for several Bishops and I still wait for a reply. Thousands of euro and pounds spent from Trocaire boxes before any of it reaches the starving. Shocking and shameful.
ReplyDeleteThat is not nice to hear. The generous people who do their best to support Trocaire each Lent do so in good faith and it is an abuse of their funds and their trust.
DeleteSo should they sit in a dingy office and hope that donations will come? They spend on advertising etc. to solicit donations. Please don't portray Trocaire as a pariah organisation.
Delete13:17, is Trocaire financially transparent? Does it publish, at least annually, an itemized account of expenditure, including salaries of ALL staff and the exact amounts spent on episcopal junkets?
DeleteIt publishes annual financial statements that are independently audited and made available for public inspection on its website. It says it helped 2.4 million people in the last financial year, that 93% of donations are spent on charitable purposes, and it does not pay top-ups or bonuses to staff. It has few staff and publishes their salary bands. It understands that full financial transparency is essential to retain the trust and confidence of its donors.
Delete21:04, thank you.
Delete21:04, I almost forgot this. Does it publish the amounts spent on episcopal and other junkets? Or is it more coy about this when it comes to financial 'transparency '?
DeleteTotally agree Magna Carta. That rather flowery summary of Trocaire's financial accounting doesn't answer the question whatsoever of sending Bishops on fact finding missions (junkets). Flights and hotels paid for in return for some smiling faces of the Episcopate on Trocaire literature. Imagine the amount of starving people who could be fed instead of funding expensive tv adverts placed at prime time slots.
DeleteIn Dublin there's a Bon Secour hospital in Glasnevin. The old women used refer to them as 'the bunch of hoars'
ReplyDeleteOur minister for children Miss Zappone is 'moved and upset' by the Tuam discovery. She feel no such sense of upset for the unborn babies she wants aborted! Perhaps she only feels for dead babies, those in the womb seem fair game.
ReplyDeleteAll the very deliberate sensationalism attached to this story is obscuring the real issues from me. The "just leave them there" headline is not attributed to anyone. Use of the words "shocking", "discarded" and "septic tank" don't point to any particular truth.
ReplyDeleteIs the truth simply that unmarked cemetery in the convent grounds was used as a burial ground for a large number of children, some of them in a structure which in the past (not during the time of burial) had been part of the sewage system? I don't think this tells us anything about the respect with which the burials were carried out. Mass graves are not unusual, and not necessarily disrespectful. They are commonly used today by councils to bury the homeless, poor or unclaimed.
For me, the real issues are : 1. Was it secret? Secret from whom? (some of the locals seemed to know about it). It seems very unusual that there was no general memorial or marking. Many of my relatives from this time period lie in unmarked graves, but at least they are in a recognised cemetery.
2. Was the number of deaths larger than would be expected? If so, why?
So I guess it may come down to whether this was simply a discrete way to deal with the burial of a large number, or whether it was a secret and a cover-up for something else.
Would you wish your child buried in part of a sewage system, even if it was now unused? Would you be happy with that? Would that indicate respect for its remains? Or might it suggest such little value for them that it was appropriate to associate the body with human excrement? (Isn't this what Satan is associated with in the popular mind? Human shite?)
DeleteA propos/ number of deaths for those decades - - It is probably about the number you would expect - - The institution was continually crowded as photographs show bedrooms with the beds in tightly packed rows and likewise the rows of infant cots in other rooms. There are also several photos of crowded dining rooms with eight or ten per table and of children in crowded outdoor play areas. This was an era of great poverty and many adults ended up in workhouses separated from their children. Of course, many of the children were illegitimate and some families did not want to hear, or be reminded of their unwanted child ever again once the "shameful event" was over. Sadly, this meant they didn't wish to be reminded if there should be a baby death or the "shame" of a family funeral to organise. So that was partly what led to the unnamed communal burying grounds. (It does not excuse a lack of respect though on the part of those who did have to deal with the burials)
DeleteSo the numbers of children living there were big to begin with. Bearing in mind that infant mortality in the general population was very high due to prevalence of diphtheria, measles and whooping cough in particular, it doesn't seem surprising that there would have been many infants who didn't survive once an epidemic of one of these very contagious diseases took hold. During the early years too, we did not have antibiotics as penicillin was discovered in 1928 but it took much longer to get the life-saving drugs developed for general use. Now, thank God, we have also the benefits of toddler vaccinations but that took time to be accepted and implemented. Ironically, to be absolutely truthful and fair, many of those Bon Secours photos show apparently well enough nourished children, some even plump! Their clothing is clean, if old-fashioned as one would expect in those times. But many of the little faces do look sad and strained and the absence of one - to - one mothering, personal attention and love must have been very acute and taken its toll. It was a bigger and wider issue by far than merely the coping skills (--or lack of -) of the Bon Secours staff alone. It was a time when adults in general were largely unaware of the dreadful lasting effects of bad early childhood experiences. Discipline was king and the consequences of stepping out of line often involved thoughtless casual cruelty. Poor little mites!
There is one thing missing from your thoughful (if a little too apologetic) socio-economic review of those times: it's the effect of a moral censure by the Catholic Church so shaming that it drove Catholic society to the point where it would abandon these young and innocent little ones into institutions ill-equipped, either professionally or financially, to look after them well, while Catholic hierarchs, in direct contradiction of Jesus' example, lived in palaces, in inordinate luxury.
DeleteThank you Anon @14:43 for an intelligent objective comment.
DeleteMMM
(To Magna Carta) I am the poster to which you were kind enough to respond - - thanks. I certainly agree with you re/the Catholic Church providing the moral censure that led to society's views at the time. (To be honest, I was taken that as read as a lot of other posts had mentioned it already) There is no doubt of that whatsoever. An illegitimate birth was regarded as a catastrophe which sullied that family for generations and which provided others with ample food for gossip. Other Churches in that era, to be honest, had broadly similar views and history of mother/baby homes shows that it was very often the Salvation Army which picked up the slack for non-Catholic families. Up until at least the 1970s, "disgraced" girls were hidden away in hostels such as Thorndale Ave hostel, off Antrim Rd Belfast. Many of the girls try to contact any friends or family which might be now more accepting of their plight at that. (They are helped by use of Internet forums etc in some cases) So the Churches re-inforced heavily the Victorian viewpoints and kept an iron grip. You are correct on that.
Delete(To MMM) I am poster 14,43--Appreciated your comment - - Thanks.
DeleteWell said! There is such hypocricy in the air around the Tuam discoveries. Society knew full well the nature of those institutions and it suited to have them at a time when issues like unmarried pregnancy were swept under the carpet.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me vomit to see the likes of Colm O'Gorman call for abortion as a human right......What does he imagine is torn apart and ripped limb by limb from its mothers womb? It is a human.....and where are it's rights?
13:15, like you I am morally opposed to abortion. And again like you (presumably), I am opposed to it on the ground that human life is a chip off the old divine block itself, in other words, sacred.
DeleteBut do you consider as sacred human life at ALL stages of development? Because if you do, then you're in conflict with Catholic Church teaching. Historically, the Catholic Church has NEVER (except in its earliest years) respected unconditionally the sanctity of human life, since it has long supported, even encouraged, its destruction. So before you throw up at the sight of Colm O'Gorman, regurgitate your last meal at the historical hypocrisy of your church.
Sorry about your vomiting bug...too much information At lunch
ReplyDeletetime
TORN LIMB BY LIMB
Get a grip and get a life And stop exaggerating
Not an exaggeration at all, in a forceps removal, I am afraid.
DeletePat can you do ann investigation into the foll
ReplyDeleteWas Trocaire funds used for Bishops trips to anywhere
Most disconserating info I'm getting
today
It's deflecting from the real truth of the matter, to compare this with abortions, or focus on whether or not a mass grave is acceptable. To me the real issue is the treatment of these babies when they were alive. In a Christian society and in the care of a Christian community of nuns they were treated as scum. Lesser beings for having been born out of wedlock. Files refer to the lack of food and evidence of malnutrition. It appears that torn from their mothers little effort was provided to keep them alive. This to me is the true sin of all this. The Archbishop of Tuam The Most Reverend Michael Neary said how shocked he was, but quickly went on to state "As the archdiocese did not have any involvement in the running of the home in Tuam," washing his offices hands of any involvement. And yet as head of the dioceses, and in total control in those days it is either denial that his office knew or gross incompetece that they did not. Which ever it is they do have a need to answer for this This is not as will be claimed, a damnation of the Catholic Church, this is a genuine plea for them to honestly answer for their dreadful past and by the realisation of this truth to change the future.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of trocaire I think of Casey speeding in England. Where are the files from the tuam baby home. Bon Secours owned the place so the buck stops there. Who should pay for the rightful burial of these children. Also a proper service is needed not for their salvation but for our shame
ReplyDeleteActually they legally owned and operated the home but with the states consent. Why didn't the state protect these children IF and only IF abuse is being alleged
DeleteCasimir...the antiabortinists will always jump on any bandwagon
ReplyDeleteThat will give them a platform
Yes this story is about Tuam and as such nothing should detract from a full investigation
17.29
ReplyDeleteSo isn't it obvious...the burial of these babies was abusive
Numerous reports say that little ones there were underfed...isn't that abusive
The fact that pregnant young women were abandoned there is abusive
Abandoning your pregnant family member was the result of rc teaching
Need I go on!!!!!!!!!
The ACPI website has a very interesting piece on this story by Pádraig McCarthy. One commentator asks why the babies were not buried in the Holy Angels' plot in the local cemetery. One possible answer: local people did not want the remains of their children being mixed with the remains of children who died in the home.
ReplyDeleteWhat about John Kirby and Trocaire??????
ReplyDeleteJesus god forgive me pat but this is bad. 800+ little babies - what shocks me more is the lack of reaction in Ireland - this should be all over the news and newspapers at the moment - people need to be brought to account for this - very little reaction in Ireland about this - get the feeling the country has given up and this is just something else that happened - its time to wake up IRELAND
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth. I did see a report in today's paper to the effect that Ms Frances Fitzgerald, the Republic's Justice Minister has said that it is now "inevitable" that the Gardai are called in to investigate this matter. We'll see..
DeleteAnd I hope the investigating officers will not be senior friends / golf partners of Irish bishops and clergy
Delete19.30 Ireland is under anaesthetic I think. Saying they don't give a S*ite is over simplefying the matter
DeleteWho was the bishop of Tuam in the 40/50s
ReplyDeleteOf course the rc church was to blame
Parish priest ruled the roost then and brought our pregnant
daughters to that hom
AS IT WAS CONSIDERED A MORTAL SIN TO GET PREGNANT OUTSIDE MARRIAG
Archbishop Joseph Walsh.
DeleteSo did he ever say anything or apologise for his misguided ruling of the masses
ReplyDeleteTheACPI are a group and as such a useless body
ReplyDeleteGood on Kenny tonite
ReplyDeleteThat hospital needs closed and its assets seized
ReplyDeleteWhy is it still operating ???
The Tuam mother/baby Home operated from 1925 to 1961 and that seems to be the period in question.
DeleteThe Bon Secours religious Order have, however, built and operate other medical institutions since. As far as I know, some of these newer hospitals etc are private medical facilities which charge fees.
Jesus summed the whole TUAM affair up with a statement that covered most things like this.
ReplyDeleteIF YOU HAVE DONE IT TO THE LEAST OF THESE THEN YOU HAVE DONE IT TO ME.