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Mother and baby scandal could hit every family in Ireland
By Adelina Campos
Every household in Ireland could be rocked by the forgotten babies inquiry, a mum-of-two warned last night. Mary Frances Joyce, who has been trying to find the grave of her infant cousin for more than three decades, said: “Ireland needs to get its head out of the sand because tens of thousands of women were sent to mother-and-baby institutions and had children there. “I don’t think there is a family in this country that hasn’t got a dark secret hanging over them somewhere.” Mary’s cousin was born at Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, one of the largest mother-and-baby homes in the country on October 4, 1950. She died just over two months later but there is no burial record for her. Mary fears her little cousin was buried in an unmarked grave or dumped in a mass plot like the suspected 800 babies at the home in Tuam, Co Galway. Mary explained: “About a fortnight after she was born, my cousin was transferred to Tullamore hospital. “She died on December 13 1950 of hydrocephalus [water on the brain] and spina bifida. “Her mother, my aunt Mary Carmel Donegan was a minor at that stage. She was nearly 17-years-old, she had been raped and that’s how she ended up in Castlepollard. “I have spent the last 35 years trying to find out the burial place of the baby and the whereabouts of my aunt. “I spoke to the order of nuns that ran Castlepollard, the Sacred Heart Sisters, on a number of occasions but they denied any knowledge of the child’s burial place. “I contacted the hospital but they don’t have records going that far back. “My aunt and my cousin were both minors at the time so the nuns had some duty of care towards them. They should have been able to tell me what they had done with the remains.” Mary’s family kept her aunt and cousin’s existence a secret from her until she found a schoolbook with her aunt’s name on it. And she believes thousands of families around the country could be unaware of their own murky past. She said: “It was a big secret, and a whole can of worms was opened up when I came across my aunt’s name. “Back then, my mum told me that if I ever tried to make contact with Carmel, I would be dead to the family. That was the attitude. “For me, this mass baby grave in Tuam was nothing new because there are hundreds of babies in the same position dumped in the ground in Castlepollard and in Sean Ross Abbey, another mother-and-baby home. “Tuam made the headlines because of the septic tank claim but this information has been out there for years and no one wanted to know. “This was the land of secret and what we did with our pregnant daughters, and what we did with their babies, was horrific. “We need to know what sort of care, if any, was given and what happened to these babies when they died.” Ms Joyce’s comments come days after local historian Catherine Corless revealed there were no burial records for 796 children who had died between 1925 and 1961 at the Tuam home. Her research indicates the remains of children, from infants to nine-year-olds, are located in unmarked ground. An inter-governmental inquiry is under way.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror this week, Galway East TD Colm Keaveney said: “Whether or not 800 babies were “If the bones found in 1975 by the two boys date back to the famine, and the 800 babies are not buried on that land, then where are they? “Ms Corless’s research is quite clear on this point. Hundreds of children died and there is no trace of them in any local cemetery. “So more than the septic tank issue what we need to find out is what happened to them? How did they die? and who was responsible?”
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