In 2012 an amateur historian in the small town of Tuam in Galway (in the west of Ireland) published an article in a local journal about the deaths of children at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home. Catherine Corless, then in her late 50s, had quite recently gained an interest in local history through attending an evening course. She was in the process of becoming what Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin would call a “tireless crusader for dignity and truth”.
In 2012 an amateur historian in the small town of Tuam in Galway (in the west of Ireland) published an article in a local journal about the deaths of children at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home. Catherine Corless, then in her late 50s, had quite recently gained an interest in local history through attending an evening course. She was in the process of becoming what Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin would call a “tireless crusader for dignity and truth”.
Baby home survivor brands Taoiseach and Tánaiste sickening double act
Government criticised for failure to commit to a referendum on acccess over adoption records
Artworks at the grotto on an unmarked mass grave at the site of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Fri, 15 Jan, 2021 - 12:30
Neil Michael
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar have been dubbed a “sickening double act” over their respective statements about the mother and baby homes scandal.
The Chair of the Coalition of Mother And Baby home Survivors (CMABS) has attacked them for not committing outright to a referendum on access over adoption records.
âMoral and financial ruinâ
Saying she was âincredibly disappointedâ, Rosemary Adaser said in laying blame at the feet of womenâs families, the report did not heed âthe rigidly-imposedâ rules of the Church and State then in place.
Families of unmarried mothers going against those norms would have faced âmoral and financial ruinâ, she said.
Meanwhile, the report did not go far enough on the issue of âforced illegal adoptionsâ, and mothers giving up their babies were âcaptured in a systemâ where they had âno choiceâ, she said.
Reading the report, she felt survivors were being told âit wasnât as bad as you lot make it out to beâ, she said. The treatment of mixed-race children born in the homes had been largely âignoredâ, she said.
Irish premier Micheal Martin is among those calling for financial reparations from churches, saying it was appropriate that there is a significant contribution from religious organisations .