‘They made things up as they went along’
‘Weakness’ blamed for 211 infant fatalities Campaigner blasts ‘farcical’ tot register
EXCLUSIVE A Newly-released register of the 211 children who died in a mother and baby home shows the majority had “physical weakness” listed as a cause of death.
Castlepollard Home in Co Westmeath was run by the Congregations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary and housed women who had “illegitimate” children between 1935 and 1971.
But a newly-released document under Freedom Of Information shows, just like the Tuam home, that many of the children who died there did not receive a proper medical diagnosis and their causes of death ranged from non-medical conditions such as general weakness and fainting.
The register also shows that most of the children were born to single women listed with Domestic Servant as their occupation.
Previous testimony of survivors revealed a number of children were born as a result of sexual abuse from their employers in service. Campaigners insisted the death of a child registered as fainting should not be allowed. Anna Corrigan, whose two brothers are believed to have died in the Tuam home, said: “They made things up as they went along. “Ten children would die and the nuns just registered a lot of them with the same cause of death. Ten here, five there, they were all registered with the same illness. “You can’t trust at all what any of them said as there was no proper medical certification for any of the children. “I believe they were neglected and that’s why they died. And I still believe some were registered as dead but are alive. “It’s farcical, the entire thing. “It is a big deal when a child dies, but it wasn’t to the nuns back then and still isn’t – otherwise our families would be taken out of those pits long before now.” The FOI records show that 211 children died during the running of the religious home from 1935 to 1970. The youngest child was baby
James O’shea who was five minutes old and died from “atelectasis” – which is the collapse of part or all of a lung.
The majority of the children all passed away under the age of one and suffered similar causes of deaths such as cardiac failure, cerebral haemorrhage, pneumonia and gastric problems.
In these details, given to the Irish Sunday Mirror, 30 babies died from syncope, while 27 had heart disease.
Other causes of death include spina bifida, marasmus and whooping cough, dehydration and congenital debility.
The same order of nuns ran Sean Ross Abbey home in Tipperary and Bessborough in Cork.
During its years of operation, the large manor home in the midlands housed 4,972 woman and 4,559 children.
The length of stay varied for women over time, according to the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes report – between 1947 and 1959, a length of stay was around 304 days.
Of the children who died in Castlepollard, 60% passed in 1940 – that same year, the report noted, that the institution was “overcrowded”. While the report noted the nuns’ ledgers showed 247 babies died in Castlepollard during its years of operation, only 211 of those babies’ names were obtained under Freedom Of Information.
This has also happened in Sean Ross Abbey and Bessborough – the nuns appeared to have kept two registers for the children who died with FOI being a lower number.
This in itself has caused concern that children were illegally registered as dead, but were in fact illegally adopted. No register of burials was kept for the children who died in Castlepollard but there is a designated burial ground there with large nails in the wall, which are understood to represent the number of children who died.
It’s a big deal when a child dies, but it wasn’t to the nuns ANNA CORRIGAN YESTERDAY