I was known as what they called a ‘delicate child’
THE late former editor of the Connacht Tribune, John Cunningham, wrote in 2008 about his experiences in the St Mary’s Mother and Child home in Tuam.
‘I’d prefer if something less predictable was to typify Santa Claus and the joy of Christmas morning. For me, it’s a red fire engine, as big a cliché as the boy who always wanted to be an engine driver.
‘It was in The Children’s Home. I was four or five and Santa arrived with that fire engine. I was laid-up in the infirmary of the home suffering from any one of a number of the ailments that children will get; ailments to which I recall I seem to have been particularly susceptible. ‘As I recall, I was known as what they called “a delicate child”. Then a mere slip of a thing, I was in the home because my mother died at only 32, less than a month after I was born prematurely. At the time, it seems that to just have survived, when premature, was something of an achievement.
‘My father was employed by the