Philomena: ‘Horror goes beyond belief ’
Veteran campaigner calls for diggers to move into grounds of all mother and baby homes in wake of ‘appalling’ discoveries
PHILOMENA Lee, whose heartbreaking story as a mother and baby home survivor inspired an Oscar-nominated movie, has spoken of her horror at the revelations regarding the Bon Secours home in Tuam.
The 84-year-old campaigner described the latest development as “appalling and horrifying beyond belief ”.
She is now calling on the Government to exhume the grounds of other mother and baby homes across Ireland.
“We didn’t know what happened to the babies that died in the home. We were never told,” she said. “The State now needs to look at the other homes. The truth needs to come out.”
The Limerick woman, who spent most of her lifetime fighting to trace the son she gave birth to in a Roscrea mother and baby home, also said the time had come to stop excusing attitudes that have prevailed in Ireland.
“People say: ‘Oh, they were the times’. But do you know what? You can’t use that excuse any more.
“I said that myself when I first set out to find my son, ‘well, they were the times’, but it’s just an excuse. It’s not good enough. Too many awful things have come out since.”
In recent weeks, Steve Dahllof, the long-term partner of Ms Lee’s deceased son Michael Hess, contacted the family to express his horror at the discovery in Tuam.
“We still keep in touch. He called my daughter from Hong Kong and said: ‘Have you heard what’s going on?’
“I can’t stop thinking about those poor mothers. Can you imagine how they must feel? I keep putting myself in their shoes — the sadness, the horror, the awfulness of it all.”
Ms Lee also echoed the words of Taoiseach Enda Kenny who stressed that nuns who ran mother and baby homes did not “kidnap children” — instead society gave them up to spare them from the viciousness of gossip.
“A lot of families were to blame too. The families just got rid of girls. They didn’t want to know. They didn’t want their daughters to bring shame on them,” she said.
“I think as a whole society needs to bear responsibility for a lot of it. My aunt took me to the doctor and he said: ‘There is a home for mothers and babies in Roscrea, take her there.’ Everything was pushed under the carpet because of shame.”
Ms Lee’s Oscar-nominated story — Philomena — struck a chord around the world when she revealed how her adopted son returned three times to the Roscrea home only to be told his mother had abandoned him.
This was in spite of knowing his mother had dedicated her life to searching for him, even providing an address where she could be found.
In desperation, Michael asked the mother superior if he could at least be buried in the convent if he were to die. He told her he would put enough information on his gravestone to help his mother find out about his life “if ever she comes looking for me”.
The hunt for Michael took Philomena through State and Church archives, through adoption agencies and American university records before she finally traced him to his grave at the mother and baby home in Roscrea.