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Heartless nun tells teen mum as she takes her baby away: "What the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't feel"
By Alana Fearon
Marian Kelly reveals how her son was forcibly taken from her just hours after birth and illegally given up for adoption at Cork mother and baby home A heartbroken mum whose baby son was taken from her hours after birth, has revealed how heartless nuns told her: “What the eyes don’t see, the heart doesn’t feel.” The growing outrage over the treatment of children in State religious homes intensified yesterday as it emerged vaccines meant for cattle were tested on kids. Marian Kelly was just 18 when she gave birth to her son Anthony in 1974 and was taken to the Bessborough mother-and-baby home in Co Cork. Choking back tears, she opened up about how she was allowed to hold her baby for just a few short minutes before he was taken from her by the Sacred Heart sisters who ran the home. Like tens of thousands of other unmarried teen mums, Marian was never allowed to see her baby again and forced to sign a consent form to have him adopted just 48 hours later. And lifting the lid on her heartache, the Cork woman branded the adoption “forced and illegal” and joined the global outcry for an independent investigation into what went on in Ireland’s religious-run mother-and-baby homes. She revealed: “It was a forced, illegal adoption. It destroyed my life. I’m lucky that I know where my child is and I’ve had contact with him since Christmas again after 14 years and I met him a few weeks ago and he’s a lovely guy and my other children are beautiful but they’ve suffered desperately. “My life was never the same, they took my child, they took my life.” And as pressure mounts on the Government to find the truth, more sickening revelations have emerged, including claims that:
Marian spoke out at a protest organised by the Bessborough Mother and Baby Group to call for a dig for babies’ bodies to be carried out at the former home and for it to be included in any Government probe arising from the horrific revelations that the remains of up to 800 tots were dumped in a mass grave in a septic tank at the Bon Secours home in Tuam, Co Galway. Gardai are investigating the disturbing claims and the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin and Education Minister Ruairi Quinn are among the voices calling for an independent probe into all mother-and-baby homes. Around 300 children 'used in medical trials in care homes' Laying bare the horror of what she experienced in Bessborough, Marian revealed: “From the moment my parents found out I was put into my bedroom upstairs until I was told that my baby was going to be induced. “He was induced early and how he survived I’ll never know because the actual birth was horrific. “A couple of hours after he was born I was put into the back of an ambulance and they put him into my arms. “He was gorgeous with a little dimple on his chin. He was like myself to be honest and then they drove me down here in the back of the ambulance with my baby. “The door opened and I thought I was being helped out of the ambulance because I could hardly walk to be honest and a nun put out her arms and took my baby and turned around and walked away and that was the end of it. “I wasn’t allowed to see him, I was put upstairs in a room on my own and my baby was downstairs. The first (adoption) paper was signed two days after he was born but I have no recollection of that. “I actually didn’t realise it until I got the forms years later when I came down here and I couldn’t believe it.” And joining the chorus of calls for a dig to find the babies’ bodies at Bessborough and for a full inquiry into all the mother and baby homes, Marian insisted: “We need the investigation, we need to find out what happened to those poor babies and their mothers. “Where are they, who are they and why? We gave life and those innocent lives were taken and we don’t know where they are.” After more than a week of harrowing revelations about the conditions in mother-and-baby homes and missing dead babies, there was more international outrage yesterday when it was revealed experimental drug trials were carried out on babies – allegedly without consent – for up to 40 years. Michael Dwyer, a historian and lecturer at University College Cork, revealed: “My research has found that between 1930 and 1935, five vaccine trials were undertaken to test a new experimental anti-dyphtheria vaccine. “I have identified 2,051 children in residential institutions but we can also identify a further 41,000 children in Dublin who were unwittingly administered this experimental vaccine prior to its commercial release in Britain. “We have no evidence whatsoever of any form of consent.” Mirror Investigates: Doc who lifted lid on mum and child horrors in home 65 years ago Three trials were conducted at homes at Bessborough, St Peter’s in Co Westmeath, St Clare’s in Stamullen, and The Good Shepherd in Dunboyne – both Co Meath – as well as six Dublin homes. Around 80 children became unwell after they were allegedly given a vaccine intended for cattle as part of an experiment run at five care homes and orphanages in Dublin in the mid-70s – but nothing has ever been published. One man, Christy, who was born in Bessborough in 1960, has been covered in unexplained marks all his life. But he has no written proof he was used in vaccine tests. He said: “It was fixated in my mind for years. When I met someone I’d be staring at their arms saying, ‘What was wrong with me? Why was I so different?’ “I’ve been to a few doctors and they’ve just said they can’t understand it, they’ve never seen anything like it with so many injections but I don’t have any written proof I was in any trials so to speak.”
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