Zappone’s plea: give Tuam babies dignity
Homes probe hits out at religious orders over burials
‘Please tell the truth’
AN inquiry into the notorious Mother and Baby Homes has hit out at the lack of information it was given by the religious orders and councils that ran them.
The fifth interim report from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland stated that it found it very difficult to understand how the Sisters of Bons Secours, which ran the Tuam Mother and Baby Home, and Galway County Council, which oversaw its running, knew little about the burial of more than 800 children who died there.
Similarly, it hit out at the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who it said do not know where the children who died in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Co. Cork are buried. Launching the Appeal: Katherine Zappone report, Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone urged anyone with information about the burials to come forward.
The report states that 937 children and babies died in Tuam, either in the nearby Glenamaddy Children’s Home or the Tuam home itself and makes a number of findings about the burials, whose past was uncovered and made public by historian Catherine Corless. It also states it is clear that many of the children were buried in underground chambers built on the site of a old sewage tank.
‘The Commission is surprised by the lack of knowledge about the burials on the part of Galway County Council and the Sisters of Bon Secours,’ the report said. ‘Galway County Council members and staff must have known something about the manner of burial when the home was in operation. The Board of Health and its sub-committees sometimes held their meetings in the home.
‘Employees of Galway County Council must have known about the burials. County Council employees would have been in the grounds of the home quite frequently as they carried out repairs and possibly also maintained the grounds.’ Speaking at the report launch yesterday, Ms Zappone said: ‘There must be more people in the Tuam area who know more about the burials arrangement than was made available to the Commission. If anyone has that information, please come forward.
‘The Government is supporting my proposal that the Commission’s report be referred to relevant ministers and then to specific authorities for consideration of any appropriate action including An Garda Síochána, the Coroner’s service and relevant burial authorities.
‘My plea, especially to the relevant people who may be out there is this – let us know where they are buried.
‘Please come forward and tell the truth, let us acknowledge them with that truth, that they lived and died and maybe then finally they can be treated with dignity in death.
‘I feel deeply for the families who may not get the answer they are seeking. In a lot of cases, the evidence is not there.’
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