IRELAND
IrishCentral
John Spain @IrishCentral March 09, 2017
The revelation last Friday by the commission investigating the Tuam mother and baby home scandal that infant skeletons had been found in underground chambers at the site has led to horrified headlines, not just at home but around the world.
That’s not surprising. The story (not entirely accurate) that the remains of hundreds of children had been “dumped” in a “sewage pit” by the nuns who ran the home over several decades was shocking enough to get international coverage. On Friday night I saw it on the BBC, Sky News, and American and European TV channels.
Several elements gave the story a high level of interest. Although almost medieval in its horror, this had taken place in the recent past, in the four decades between the 1920s and 1960s. The unfortunate babies and children were in the home because they were illegitimate, born to unmarried young mothers. Above all, the home was run by nuns.
And it is true that the nuns have a lot to answer for. Last weekend there were calls for a criminal follow-up and prosecutions, although only two nuns who served in the Tuam home are still alive and they are in their 80s and may not have been directly involved. The Bon Secours order of nuns they belonged to who ran Tuam has shrunk to a handful of very elderly sisters.
But the idea that this scandal is all the fault of cruel and heartless nuns is a convenient way of dodging the wider truth. It wasn’t just the nuns who were to blame. It was Irish society at the time.
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