Why this Sunday, instead of kneeling in the Phoenix Park, I will stand with the Tuam survivors

IN the middle of the pomp and ceremony and cheering for the Pope’s visit to Ireland later this week, there lies, hidden from view, a sewage facility holding the remains of hundreds of babies and young children, abandoned to an abyss of Ireland’s shame. They are the babies who died under the care of the Bon Secours Sisters in the Tuam mother and baby home between the years 1925 and 1961.

There will be no official ceremony, no remembrance for those little ones. They were the Illegitimate who, in the eyes of the Church, were born into sin. Those who were fortunate enough not to succumb to the fate of the 796 who did not make it have not forgotten their little friends.

On Sunday, to coincide with the Papal Mass in Phoenix Park, the survivors will gather at the Tuam Home site in solidarity with the babies. And I will be there with them.

Annette McKay, from Manchester, who initiated this vigil, was going to come and stand alone at the site, because her little sister Margaret died in the Tuam Home and is more than likely in the sewage tank. It is Annette’s wish to exhume those babies and identify them in the hope of finding her little sister’s remains and rebury her with their mother. But now she will not stand alone.

We will assemble at the Town Hall in Tuam at 2pm and 30 minutes later we will walk the half mile or so up the Dublin road in silence to the burial site which lies in the centre of a housing estate. Candles will be lit around a sculpture made up of numerous tiny clay babies formed in the shape of a baptismal font.

This beautiful creation was gifted to the Tuam babies by Flemish artist Martine Sterk, who had read about the babies in a Belgian newspaper and was so moved by the story, that she set about asking her students and their friends to each create a little clay replica of a baby.

THE response she got was amazing, and she was so touched to see that each little clay baby returned had been wrapped in a little blanket. Such was the response to the Tuam Home story from an unknown person, who had never set foot in Ireland. Yet, there has been no response in the four years since the story broke, from any of the religious or Church superiors.

Around the candles we will lay a ring of baby shoes. Each of the baby’s names and year of death will be read out by the survivors present.

This vigil is important to survivors and to their families, to give a clear message to the Church and State that the babies will not be forgotten.

It has been nearly a year and a half now since their little remains were discovered by the archaeologists – and yes they were found in a sewage tank.

The Government at the time made the announcement that, to its shock and horror, the Tuam story had been proved true.

Our local Church leaders expressed sorrow and disbelief at Mass. President Michael D Higgins gave his own speech of empathy and stated Catherine Corless was a great lady altogether!

Words are easily spoken but are useless without some action. I give credit to Minister Katherine Zappone who came to Tuam on several occasions to visit the site and meet with survivors.

She also ordered a full geophysical ground penetrating survey on the whole site, including the playground area and the grassy verges.

This resulted in the discovery of further ‘anomalies’ in those areas, strongly suggesting that, along with those in the tank, these are also babies’ graves.

It appears now that Pope Francis will at least speak with clerical abuse survivors, after a last-minute decision made under great pressure.

Will he make an apology and an acknowledgement to the survivors of Catholic-run institutions and the mother and baby homes? Knock Shrine, where he will briefly be on Sunday, is only about a half hour’s drive from Tuam and is also in the same Catholic diocese.

Can Pope Francis turn a blind eye to the plight of the Tuam babies?

When I met with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin some weeks ago in the Archbishop’s Palace in Dublin, I asked him to confront the Vatican on the importance of the Pope giving some acknowledgement to the survivors of the mother and baby homes despite the previous insistence by the Archbishop of Tuam, who said that the home was outside his remit.

I told Archbishop Martin that this was not true. A local priest said Mass every day in the home, he heard confessions weekly there, he baptised all the babies there and the chaplain of the home was a local priest.

I also wrote to the Vatican, to Cardinal Kevin Farrell, but have received no reply so far.

This week I got an invitation from the Taoiseach’s Office to attend the Civic Ceremony in St Patrick’s Hall Dublin Castle on Saturday.

I thanked them for the invite, but said that I would have to decline as I am standing with the survivors, and the Tuam babies.