UNITED STATES
Catholic League
Bill Donohue
To the media in Ireland and England, and to some outlets in the United States, Catherine Corless is an Irish hero, a brave woman who uncovered a “mass grave” outside a Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Ireland. She has been lavishly praised for her painstaking research, making her the most celebrated historian in Ireland today. But before she is canonized St. Catherine of Tuam by her faithful fans, it behooves us to examine her bona fides, and her story.
The first myth concerns her expertise. Contrary to what virtually all news reports have said, Corless is not a historian: she not only does not have a Ph.D. in history, she doesn’t have an undergraduate degree. She is a typist. Her part-time course on historical research may impress some, but to those who know better, a high school equivalency diploma carries more weight.
This does not mean she is dumb—many secretaries are brighter than the professors they serve. Nor does this disqualify her from making a contribution to historical events. But she is no historian.
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