Letters to the editor: Abuse not exclusive to Catholic institutions
Your columnist Fergus Finlay can bash Catholic Church all he likes but he needs to aim some blows at the Protestant Church
An inscription on the monument in Mount Jerome Cemetry to honour all the children who died in Bethany Home between 1922-1949 pictured this morning. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin
Sat, 23 Jan, 2021 - 08:41
Commenting on the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Inquiry report, your columnist Fergus Finlay said: “The Catholic Church ruled us formed our attitudes, told us what we were allowed to think.”
Not Derek Leinster in the Bethany Home, sent to a dysfunctional family that abandoned him, it didn’t; not the children farmed out as labour from the age of five by the Nursery Rescue Society, it didn’t; not the children emotionally, sexually, and physically abused in Smyly’s Homes, it didn’t; not the Westbank Orphanage children transformed into professional orphans and parade
Another publication laying bare the injustices of the past.
Injustices that continue to have an impact on Irish society today.
The week began with a leak containing aspects of the report by the Commission of Investigation Report into Mother and Baby Homes.
Survivors woke on Sunday to discover some of the information they had waited so long to receive was in the public domain.
They were furious.
It compounded their frustration with an investigative process of which they were weary.
Since 2015, deadlines had been missed due to the workload of the commission, more recently it was affected by Covid-19; yet survivors waited patiently for the final report.
The report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes has been described as a âdamning indictmentâ of both the church and State, by a coalition of survivorsâ groups.
In a statement, the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors said the âtruly shockingâ report vindicated those who had been campaigning on the issue for many years.
The long-awaited report, published on Tuesday, found that women who gave birth outside of marriage were subjected to âparticularly harsh treatmentâ by society at the time.
The report said responsibility for that cruel treatment ârests mainly with the fathers of their children and their own immediate families,â but added it was supported and condoned by the âinstitutions of the State and the churches.â