The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes report has returned the spotlight to the darkest recesses of the unholy alliance between Church and State after independence, which treated the most vulnerable and downtrodden in society with contempt and abject cruelty.
In what was arguably a theocracy in all but name, the partnership ensured that an undemocratic Church, with a mandate only from God and the Pope, played a pivotal role in maintaining a strict moral code even if that trampled on basic human rights.
There was no room for the romantic ideals and lofty aspirations expressed by the socialists and poets who led the 1916 Rebellion.
Nuns treated 11-year-old rape victims as if they were prostitutes : How schoolgirls were among 56,000 mothers sent to hellish Irish homes where 9,000 babies died and bodies were buried in shoeboxes - as survivors slam cop-out report
Some 56,000 unmarried mothers and 57,000 children went to hellish Mother and Baby homes in Ireland
Commission of Investigation found that 15 percent of the children died between 1922 and 1998
Report pointed the blame at families and fathers who turned their backs on the unmarried, pregnant women
The very high mortality rates were known to local and national authorities and were officially recorded
Many of the women were forced to seek refuge in the homes for fear of the their families and neighbours discovering their pregnancies
Thousands of infants died in Irish homes for unmarried mothers and their offspring run by the Catholic Church from the 1920s to the 1990s, an inquiry found on Tuesday, an "appalling" mortality rate that reflected brutal living conditions.
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Thousands of infants died in Irish homes for unmarried mothers and their offspring run by the Catholic Church from the 1920s to the 1990s, an inquiry found on Tuesday, an "appalling" mortality rate that reflected brutal living conditions.
The death and life of Pat Tierney, the Bard of Ballymun
Twenty-five years ago, poet and activist Pat Tierney died on his 39th birthday. Fionnuala McCarthy remembers a life story overshadowed by a controversy in death. By Fionnuala McCarthy Sunday 3 Jan 2021, 8:00 PM Jan 3rd 2021, 8:00 PM 68,793 Views 33 Comments Fionnuala McCarthy
THE PHONE CALL came to the Sunday Tribune newsroom on 28 December 1995 from a flat in Ballymun.
The caller, Pat Tierney, explained he was planning to take his life the following week, on his 39th birthday. Before he died, he wanted the opportunity to tell his story and explain the reasons for his decision.