Corless lashes inaction since Tuam discovery
CATHERINE Corless has said she was ‘naive’ to believe action would be taken immediately to exhume remains when she discovered bodies of babies were buried in a sewage tank at a mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.
The historian and campaigner, who exposed the scandal, told the Dáil’s Children’s Committee yesterday the State should do all it can to ensure justice for the women and children.
The Oireachtas committee heard from a range of experts and campaigners as it scrutinised the Industrial Burials Bill. The proposed legislation will enable an agency to be set up to oversee exhumations of remains at former mother and baby homes.
Campaigners want coroners involved in the investigation of the burials of up to 9,000 babies.
‘Can you imagine the pain it caused?’
Ms Corless told TDs that it was to her ‘dismay’ that the Tuam site, which was run by the Bon Secours religious order, was put back to its original condition and exhumation of the remains did not happen after it came to light.
Her research revealed 796 babies and children had died and been ‘indecently buried in a defunct sewage system’ at the Tuam home between 1925 and 1961.
TDs and senators heard that a team of archaeologists had found 17 chambers of sewage filled with the remains of infants, older babies and children of up to four years ‘discarded without coffins, one on top of the other’.
A report published in January found that the religious institutions for unmarried women who got pregnant produced high levels of infant mortality and misogyny.
Many mother and baby homes were run by Catholic nuns.
There has been criticism around the proposals in the legislation to disapply the powers of the Coroners Act during the excavation process of the burial sites.
Ms Corless said that despite statements of ‘shock and horror’ from the Government and the President in March 2017 when the discovery was made, nothing was done to exhume the bodies.
‘I naively thought then that my work was done, now sure that there would be immediate action by the State, Church and Galway County Council to do the right thing and exhume the babies from the sewage site,’ she said.
‘Within a month, to my dismay, the Tuam home tragedy fell silent. The site was restored to its original condition. The chambers were closed in, soil was put back.
‘Can you imagine the pain that this caused to the families of those in that sewage tank? What would your reaction be if you had a baby, brothers and sisters within those infested chambers?’
Ms Corless later said that it was ‘crucial’ that a DNA database be set up to identify the bodies of the children found on the sites.
She added: ‘The babies’ remains are in an excellent condition and, although mingled because of seeping rainfall, have little sign of erosion or fragmentation, including even delicate infant skull bones.’
Susan Lohan, who was adopted into a mother and baby home, told the committee the Bill ‘fails utterly to deliver on truth for mothers, children, survivors and families’.
She added: ‘It operates on the basis that the deaths are a fait accompli, requiring neither investigation, explanation, accountability nor compensation.’
Ms Lohan later said that the investigations into each of the deaths in the homes should take place as quickly as possible.
‘I would argue that when it comes to speeding up the process for certain family members – there are family members today who want to know where their loved ones are buried and how they died – those cases could be prioritised,’ she said.
She added: ‘How did these children die? The family members... certainly want to know if the children died of natural causes or if it was suspicious circumstances.’
Human rights lawyer Dr Maeve
O’Rourke, meanwhile, called for inquests into ‘every single one of the deaths in the mother and baby homes’. She explained that several articles under the European Convention on Human Rights allow inquests to be carried out in cases where bodies are not exhumed or are irrecoverable.
‘We have set out that the coroner has obligations and that was the first question I raised,’ Dr O’Rourke said.
‘What is the explanation for the absence of inquests to date? We need real answers to that.
‘What are the civil servants saying as to why the coroner has been disapplied in this law? Do they think it’s too expensive?’
Phil Scraton, professor emeritus at the School of Law at Queen’s University in Belfast, said that despite the fact the cost of inquests and further investigations may be ‘unprecedented’, the work should still go ahead.
‘Whilst I acknowledge this will be unprecedented in its costs and organisation, it is a price that will have to be paid,’ he said.
‘Do they think it’s too expensive?’