Author battled clergy to gain first-hand experience of mother-and-baby homes

By Jerome Reilly
Sunday Independent
June 8, 2014

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/author-battled-clergy-to-gain-firsthand-experience-of-motherandbaby-homes-

"We wouldn't allow a girl to take her baby to bed with her unless it was at least two months old. Then she is probably fond of it. Before then there might be accidents." – Reverend Mother of Bon Secours mother-and-baby home in Tuam

THE year was 1955 and the nun was speaking to Dr Halliday Sutherland, a Scottish doctor, author and TB treatment pioneer who visited both the Tuam home run by the French sisters, and the infamous Magdalene Laundry in Galway City as he was researching his book, Irish Journey.

To gain access to the Magdalene Laundry, Dr Sutherland had to accept interrogation by the fearsome Bishop of Galway, Michael John Browne – one of the most senior Catholic clerics and a noted supporter of the notorious sectarian boycott of Protestants in Fethard-on-Sea.

Dr Sutherland's original 1955 manuscript kept by his grandson Mark (hallidaysutherland.com) is a remarkable contemporary account of what he found at the Tuam mother-and-child home 59 years ago.

He wrote: "At Tuam I went to the old workhouse, now the Children's Home, a long two-storied building in its own grounds. These were well-kept and had many flowerbeds. The home is run by the Sisters of Bon Secours of Paris and the Reverend Mother showed me round. Each of the sisters is a fully trained nurse and midwife. Some are also trained children's nurses. An unmarried girl may come here to have her baby. She agrees to stay in the home for one year. During this time she looks after her baby and assists the nuns in domestic work. She is unpaid.