St Patrick’s Guild nurse vow on kids armbands
Mission to return baptism items from adoption scandal home
St Patrick’s Temple Hill in Dublin and all 30 have been returned. At their request she has met up with four of the owners.
She said: “They are contacting us desperate for answers. I had no idea they would be so important to the children, I can’t believe I could have been so silly.
“We didn’t feel sorry for them, we didn’t know it was supposed to be a sad place. We loved them. When they came to me I was their second mum, they were loved all the way through.
“What do we owe these kids? I stood for my children, for the time they were there they were mine. I was as close to them as my own children.
“When they left I was devastated at their loss. How must their mothers have felt? I can’t do anything for the mothers only apologise to them for not doing any more.”
Cathy has been asked many times if she knew the children were being sent abroad illegally. But she said information was scarce at the time and “we didn’t know any different than what we were told”.
She added: “I’ve no loyalty or respect for the nuns but at the same time society let these girls down, their parents let them down.”
Her mission now is to return as many keepsakes as possible and she’s urging others to make contact through the Temple Hill Nurses page on Facebook.
news@irishmirror.ie
We didn’t know it was supposed to be a sad place... we loved them CATHY GARTEN ON HER NURSING MEMORIES