Prone won’t say why she hasn’t called Tuam historian
PR GURU Terry Prone has refused to say why she still has not spoken directly to the historian who uncovered the death certificates for children buried at the Tuam Mother and Baby home.
In an appearance on the Late Late Show in October, Ms Prone said she would phone Catherine Corless to talk to her after she was questioned about her dismissal of the bones of the babies as famine remains. She has yet to do so.
When Ms Corless’s work was first reported by this newspaper back in October 2014, a French journalist contacted Ms Prone about the story and she denied the existence of the mass grave. Her response dismissed the historian’s work and offered to refer the journalist to some ‘reputable historians’, in an apparent jibe at Ms Corless.
Despite repeated attempts, the MoS has been unable to get Ms Prone to comment on the publication of the interim report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in March.
That report vindicated Ms Corless’s work in its entirety – but Ms Prone remained silent over three weeks of attempts to contact her.
When the MoS rang Ms Prone this week to ask why she had not called Ms Corless, Ms Prone was unusually reticient. She would only say: ‘I’m not talking about that’.
Speaking to the MoS, Ms Corless confirmed she had still ‘never heard a word’ from Ms Prone. She also reiterated her demand that Ms Prone apologise to the survivors properly, calling her previous attempt ‘flippant’.