The History of The Irish...Worldwide
Galway Mass Grave Story: A Cautionary Tale
Belfast Telgraph: "Mass Grave of 796 Babies Found in Septic Tank at Catholic Orphanag...
Irish Central: "Mass Grave of Up to 800 Dead Babies Exposed in County Galway"
Al Jezeera: "Nearly 800 Dead Babies Found in Septic Tank in Ireland"
After reading these headlines, one would be excused for thinking that an object that was clearly a tank for human excrement had been recently opened, and the bodies of 800 skeletons had been exhumed. That is exactly what is said above, isn’t it? Except that isn’t what happened at all.
Tuam Mother and Baby Home: The Trouble With the Septic Tank Story
The article above, from today’s Irish Times paints a very different picture. The recent interest is not stemming from any new discovery. The story is that the bones were seen by local boys in the 1970s in some kind of concrete enclosure. One of those boys (now a man, still living in the area) says there might have been around 20 skeletons. A local historian has collected death certificates for 796 children who died in the home over a period of 36 years. The resting place of their bodies, at this time, IS NOT KNOWN. No excavation of the property has been done. At this point, no 800 skeletons have been found.
The Times article raises more questions than answers. Where are these children buried? Why was no investigation conducted in the 1970s when bones were seen? Was the crypt a septic tank, a water tank (as it was called in earlier stories), or something else? Were these children given proper care when they were alive? Then there are the philosophical questions: What is the relationship between the treatment of a body and the respect for a person? How should we tread on land which is known to contain graves, and does this change with the passage of time? Does engraving their names on a plaque right any of the wrongs suffered by the deceased, or does it serve another purpose: to remind us of the significance of every human life?
It’s important to note that the deaths of 796 children are not in doubt. It is also clear that Catholic institutions like this one buried people in ways that were disrespectful and an affront to their own theological dictates. After all, much larger mass graves than this one are found throughout the island, including 11,000 bodies found interred outside Miltown cemetery in Belfast. The underlying view that certain human beings do not deserve life and dignity is intolerable, and the people who ran these institutions have plenty of questions to answer. The people responsible for grossly misrepresenting these facts do as well. Indignance is no substitute for accuracy. As the facts continue to come out, they may be every bit as salacious as the rumours. If they are less so, the inflated tales will only cloud the issue. The truth, reported as it is verified, would honour the departed most.
Those of you who have followed this story, may have noticed its absence, until now, from this website. A sense of caution unfamiliar in media circles prevailed as the dust settled around the shocking early reports. At this point I feel obliged to disclose that my husband, Ryan, is an administrator on the site. That makes me undeniably biased, but I hope my observations are still valid.
I appreciate that TheWildGeese.com is not interested in becoming just one more Irish tabloid. As a reader, I am not interested in websites that run prematurely with half-baked stories and throw up headlines about Hollywood celebrities anytime there is the slightest hint of Irish connection. Sites like that will continue to prosper, because the appetite for sensationalist voyeurism is wide, but it is also shallow. I appreciate your desire to create something deeper; a community of people with interest in the history and culture of Ireland. This includes debates on the issues of the moment, but also the themes of the age; the later giving the former context, nuance, and sanity. To the Wild Geese community, I say, the broader, more balanced view you take does not go unnoticed.
This will likely not be the last article posted on the Wild Geese on this topic, and some may take a different view than mine on the way it should be reported here. The Wild Geese will welcome those views as well, and that openness is another reason I will continue to be an avid reader.
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Comment by Robert P. Lynch on June 11, 2014 at 12:42pm
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In addition to the chilbdren born in these homes to unwed mothers, others, like my mother, were "sent" to the homes, often "sentenced" there for the crime of being poor, homeless and/or neglected. They not come from healthful circumstances and being placed close quarters with others from similar circumstances in these inadequate facilities with less than optimal care created an environment conducive to the spread of communicable disease.
Tuberculosis was especially rampant in Ireland at the time. Before adequate treatment was developed for this disease, there was a terrible social stigma attached to it, not unlike the stigma attached to unmarried pregnancy. TB so negatively impacted prospects for marriage, employment and emigration that it was denied by sufferers at all costs. Not suprising that young victims were locked away by the system, as unwed mothers and their children were. Complicating matters, plans create a modern public-health approach to the problem were stymied by the Catholic hierarchy of the day, specificaly the autocratic Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, for sectarian reasons.
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Comment by Dr. Jane Lyons on June 11, 2014 at 1:05pm
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As a matter of interest how did other countries deal with the children of unmarried mothers? Or, how did these countries deal with the mothers? What is so different about Ireland compared to the rest of the world?
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Comment by Bit Devine on June 12, 2014 at 5:53pm
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Jame, a chara, here in America, we had homes for Unwed mothers, their children and some that were truly orphans.
In New York City, they were operated by the American Female Guardian Society (AFGS). They Coupled with the Children's Aid Society to bring about the Orphan Trains.
Over 250,000 children, one in four of which were believed to be Irish, were transported across the midwest up until the early 1930s. They were often separated from siblings.
You can find out more about the Orphan trains here:
http://orphantraindepot.org/
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Comment by Kelly O'Rourke on June 23, 2014 at 7:57am
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Update: AP apologises for incorrect reporting:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100277164/associated-p...
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Comment by John W. Hurley on June 23, 2014 at 8:02pm
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Yes so their excuse is that they assumed and assumed and then assumed some more and never got the facts right in the first place. And that is the problem. So many people will complain about the Church when, in fact, they haven't the slightest clue what they are talking about. Just assumptions:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/horrifying-story-babies-buried-mass-1...
On Friday afternoon, the Associated Press published a lengthy correction on a story from earlier this month about recently unearthed records that showed 796 children were buried in a mass grave outside an old Irish orphanage for the children of unwed mothers.
The AP correction acknowledged four errors including that it "incorrectly reported that the children had not received Roman Catholic baptisms" and "that Catholic teaching at the time was to deny baptism and Christian burial to the children of unwed mothers."
AP spokesman Paul Colford told Business Insider Sunday that the mistakes were primarily the result of "editorial errors that included unfortunate jumps to flawed conclusions." Colford also described how this resulted in the false claim the children had not been baptized.
"AP was aware that Irish priests did sometimes refuse to baptize children if the parents could not pledge to raise the children as Catholics, and that those children were denied burial in marked graves in Catholic cemeteries," Colford said. "Here, we incorrectly made the leap that a similar logic applied to the children of unwed mothers. (As it was, Irish news media also were reporting the same that the babies had not been baptized.)"
According to the AP, documents subsequently showed "many children at the orphanage were baptized." AP also noted that, while some children of unwed mothers may have been denied baptisms by the Catholic church "at times" during the early 20th century, "it was not church teaching."
In addition to those errors, the correction said AP incorrectly described the orphanage as having opened in 1926 when it actually opened a year earlier. The AP story also initially quoted a researcher who said they believed the children were buried in an old septic tank. In the correction, AP acknowledged "the researcher has since clarified that without excavation and forensic analysis it is impossible to know how many sets of remains the tank contains, if any."
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Comment by Neil F. Cosgrove on June 24, 2014 at 5:46am
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Note that the corrections never get the prominence of the incorrect sensational story. This whole tragic story is a perfect illustration of the adage "rumor will be halfway around the world before truth gets its boots on". The one fact not in dispute is the death of 796 children is a tragedy, the fact that they have been used as pawns to sell papers, capture mouse clicks and further agendas is a disgrace.
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Comment by Ryan O'Rourke on June 24, 2014 at 6:01am
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Yep.
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Founding Member Comment by Nollaig 2016 on June 24, 2014 at 1:25pm
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Founding Member Comment by Nollaig 2016 on June 24, 2014 at 1:48pm -
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Long...but well worth the viewing... now the proof will be in the outcome of this, as a whole, Belinda, a chara...
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