When Listowel said ‘no’ to barbaric inhumanity of Religious towards an unmarried mother
IN RESPONSE TO THE TUAM HORRORS NED O’SULLIVAN DELIVERED A MOVING REMINDER IN THE SEANAD OF THE WHOLLY UNNECESSARY TRAGEDY, IMMORTALISED IN TONY GUERIN’S SOLO RUN, THAT BEFELL A YOUNG SINGLE WOMAN
ONE of the most horrific events in the county’s recent past was recalled this week in a powerful speech by Ned O’Sullivan in the Seanad as he reacted to the horrific revelations coming from Tuam.
It’s a story well known in North Kerry, one that was immortalised by playwright Tony Guerin in his acclaimed Solo Run - a man with a strong connection to the story; but it bears perennial retelling lest younger generations might forget the horrors of the absolute worst of the Catholic Church’s strangehold on Irish society through most of the 20th Century.
Senator O’Sullivan retold the horrific tale after sharing his thoughts on the revelations emerging from Tuam which he described as ‘chilling’ and ‘ horrendous’.
“I use my remaining time to share a story with the House. It concerns a sad and dark time in Ireland and it will have resonance given the subject under discussion today,” Senator O’Sullivan said.
“In February 1946, in a small cottage at the edge of my home town in north Kerry, a young, single girl gave birth to a baby with the assistance of a local midwife.
“Complications set in and immediate medical help was required. A local hackney man by the name of John Guerin was sent for and he brought the seriously ill girl to the local hospital, less than a mile from her home. She was refused admittance and directed to the county hospital in Tralee, which entailed an agonising journey for her of 20 miles.
“Although she was at death’s door, she was again refused admittance in Tralee and redirected to the union in Killarney, which was a further 20 miles away and which was considered to be a more suitable place for her peer group. There, she died,” he said, continuing:
“Mr Guerin took her coffin back to Listowel on the roof of his car to find the gates of our parish church locked against them. The local convent chapel door was locked as well. By this time, word had spread and a sizeable crowd of angry people had gathered in our square.
“Mr. Guerin and his neighbours broke down the chains on the church and shouldered the remains up to the altar. Community pressure was applied and the girl’s body was buried in consecrated ground the following day. Many years later, Mr. Guerin’s son, Tony, a celebrated playwright, wrote a play about that story called “Solo Run”, which ran to packed houses in Dublin. A local balladeer, Sean McCarthy, who wrote “Shanagolden”, also wrote a beautiful poem, In Shame, about the incident. It highlighted the plight of the unmarried mother of the time.
“They whisper their stories, they glance with the eye/ They look over my shoulder when I pass them by/ And my father and mother, they treat me the same/ Oh hear the nightingale crying in shame love in shame.”
Ned said about the only positive that could be gleaned from the story was the ‘courage’ of the ordinary working people of Listowel against the religious elite in demanding a Christian burial for the tragic girl.
However, Ned told the Senate he would not ‘join the queue’ to point the finger at the priests and nuns - saying most of them gave ‘fantastic’ service to communities.
Tony Guerin - hackney man John Guerin’s son and author of Solo Run – told The Kerryman he later spoke to the nephew of the nun who refused admission at Listowel. “He told me she was deeply ashamed of it, but she was just following orders I guess like so many of them.
“My father never paid any price for what he did. He didn’t give a shite about what anyone might think and would just do what he thought was right, that’s the kind of man he was. We were the poor peasants in the Gleann
“We didn’t know much about it as children. You’d know something was going on but you’d be cleared from the kitchen. It was much later when I became aware of it as my father was a man who never talked about things.”