Families’ anger over Bon Secours nuns’ refusal to apologise

Historian who uncovered the scandal accuses Bon Secours of playing for time as Tánaiste says other sites may be examined

FURY is growing among families and survivors towards the Bon Secours nuns, who continue to refuse to apologise for the appalling conditions in the Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

Meanwhile, Frances Fitzgerald, the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, has said the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation may have to expand its terms of reference to investigate other sites across Ireland.

On Friday, the commission reported finding ‘significant quantities of human remains’ buried in man-made structures which may have been used for waste treatment.

This follows the highlighting by the Irish Mail on Sunday since 2014 of more than three years of research by historian Catherine Corless. Reporter Alison O’Reilly revealed that:

There was strong evidence to suggest a mass grave in Tuam contained the bodies of almost 800 babies.

Death certificates for 796 babies were discovered thanks to the tireless work of Ms Corless.

Infants’ bodies were buried in a septic tank, rather than in a nearby graveyard. Babies died from starvation and malnutrition. At least five mothers were buried in the grounds of the home.

Once again, Tuam is making international headlines as media from Canada, France, the UK, America and elsewhere focus on what happened.

Despite this, the Bon Secours Sisters have refused to issue an apology. Instead, the group issued a generic statement on Friday, which read: ‘The Bon Secours sisters are fully committed to the work of the commission regarding the mother and baby home in Tuam.

‘On the closing of the home in 1961, all the records for the home were returned to Galway County Council, who are the owners and occupiers of the lands of the home.

‘We can therefore make no comment on today’s announcement, other than to confirm our continued co-operation with and support for the work of the commission in seeking the truth about the home.’

The commission has now carried out two excavations at the site in Tuam. In its statement this week, it reported finding the remains of children aged from just 35 weeks’ gestation to three years of age, buried underground in what it describes as a structure which ‘appears to be related to the treatment/containment of sewage and/or waste water’.

It describes a second structure as ‘a large sewage containment system or septic tank’. One structure has 20 chambers and it found human remains in at least 17 of them.

The commission said it was ‘shocked’ by the discovery and would continue to investigate to find out why and how these children had been left there.

The excavations were done by a team of specialist archaeologists.

Speaking to the MoS yesterday, Ms Corless said: ‘The nuns put out a very insensitive statement on Friday. That is the same statement as I got from them back in 2013 when I was trying to gather information – exactly the same.

‘They said they passed on the records. It hasn’t changed, they are sticking to that. It’s arrogant of them, and it’s unfortunate. We need to keep the pressure on them now.’

Ms Corless explained that she was speaking on behalf of the many survivors or families who are too scarred and broken by their experiences to speak out.

She said: ‘The nuns should hold a meeting with the survivors; both the religious and the county council should do this.

‘They should ask them what they want and give them an apology. The families are asking me to say these things for them. I can only speak for the ones who are not able to come forward.’

It’s not yet clear what will happen next with the site, which is surrounded by houses and is partially under a children’s playground.

One suggestion is to maintain a memorial garden on the site.

However Ms Corless, speaking on behalf of families, said: ‘There is no point in closing it all in again and making a little garden of it again. That is not going to solve anything. They are in a septic tank and we don’t know what state they are in.

‘I hope they will take them out, and put them in an Angels’ Plot in the main graveyard. That’s what the survivors want; you can’t be going in visiting graves in a housing estate. It is not proper.’

‘It was a harsh time in very recent history’

Annette McKay, whose sister died at the home, is distressed that the families of those who died in the Tuam home have not been consulted and fears that a decision to disinter the children’s remains may be made without them. She called it ‘unconscious cruelty’.

Peter Mulryan, who was put into the home four days after his birth, and whose sister died there, wants DNA analysis carried out on all the remains.

Thomas Garavan, who spent a quarter of a century looking for his mother’s siblings, said: ‘They should make every effort to identify the remains through whatever means necessary.’

Many people, including Ms Corless, now fear the remains at Tuam may just be the tip of the iceberg.

Over 100 other institutions, including mother and baby homes, may hold similar graves, with sites already discovered at Castlepollard, Bessborough and Roscrea.

In an interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday yesterday, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald said: ‘In relation to the future, we will have to do further forensic analysis. I think the commission is going to have to consider the ongoing approach and what the relevance is for other sites. Because we have to deal with this tragedy in its entirety.’

She also commended the MoS, adding: ‘Well done to your newspaper for the work you have done.’

Ms Fitzgerald continued: ‘It is an infinitely sad reflection on very, very harsh times in Ireland and an infinitely sad commentary on life in Ireland and attitudes to pregnant women and single mums.

‘It was a harsh time in very recent Irish history. And I think that’s what makes it so disturbing, that it is within living memory. Ireland was a very cruel place to mothers and uncaring to its children.’

Asked about the lack of official willingness to accept the story initially in 2014 , the minister said: ‘I think we have had such institutional horrors. Ranging from the Ryan report, to the various commissions, we’ve had a cold light cast on so many. It is very hard for people to begin to imagine, how a Catholic Church, Catholic sisters, a home run by religious, given the approach we’ve always taken in Catholicism to burial [could do this].

‘The pain of it will have to really be faced up to, we will have to go through it, in the interests of the children of today, so we never forget those lessons.’