How the Mail helped expose story that left nation shocked
ON May 25, 2014, the Irish Daily Mail’s sister paper, The Irish Mail on Sunday, first reported the existence of a mass grave in Tuam, Co. Galway.
It said the unmarked plot could contain as many as 796 babies born at a mother and baby home over three decades. The report detailed how the babies had been buried in a concrete tank at an unmarked site next to the former Bon Secours home in Tuam, which housed residents from 1925 to 1961.
It told how the existence of the grave was uncovered by local woman Catherine Corless, who had researched all children in Galway whose place of death was marked ‘Children’s Home, Tuam’.
Files of the local health board showed that the home housed hundreds of children, many of whom suffered deformities, malnutrition and neglect.
On May 31, 2014, the Irish Daily
‘The State is in denial’
Mail revealed that babies had starved to death while in the care of nuns, and said that thousands of the infants who died in homes for unmarried mothers were believed to be buried in mass, unmarked graves around the country.
And on the following day, The Irish Mail on Sunday also reported that the mass graves in Tuam were only the tip of the iceberg.
On June 3, the Irish Daily Mail said a relative of one of the babies buried in the concrete tank in Tuam had filed a missing persons report, which could trigger an excavation of the scene. It noted that Teresa Kelly, chairman of the Irish Children’s Home Graveyard Committee, said an excavation was long overdue. ‘We want to make sure those children’s identities are acknowledged. They had names, they were born to some woman and man, they were human beings, not animals,’ she said.
By that time, the Irish Daily Mail was reporting a clamour of calls for an inquiry into whether the death toll of children at homes across the country could run into thousands.
Former residents of other homes for Irish single mothers have also called for a formal State apology.
Philip Redmond, who was born in Sean Ross Abbey Hospital in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary – made famous by the film Philomena starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan – was one of those calling for a wider investigation.
‘How were so many children able to starve to death in hospitals run by these nuns with State funding and backing?’ he said. ‘What happened here is Ireland’s holocaust but the State is in denial.’
By June 5, the Mail reported that the Government had bowed to pressure for a full inquiry, and that several departments, including those for Children, Health, Education and Justice, were examining what could be done.