IRELAND
Irish Examiner
As a State, we are either unwilling or unable to face up to our past, and our shameful treatment of women, writes ConallÓ Fátharta
WATCHING Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald being thoroughly grilled by the chair of the UN Committee on Human Rights Nigel Rodley last month, one thing was clear — as a State, we are either unwilling or unable to face up to our past.
Year after year, scandal after scandal, from the Magdalene laundries, to symphysiotomy, and now to mother and baby homes all are linked by a common thread — the shameful treatment of women and the lengths to which the State will go to delay or deny justice.
In the aftermath of the long overdue State apology that was issued to the survivors of Magdalene laundries last year, many people forgot just how much effort successive governments had put into denying State involvement, in the face of incontrovertible evidence.
As this newspaper reported at the time of that apology, the spectre that loomed large for the Government was that of the mother-and-baby homes. Yet, thanks to the Tuam babies making global headlines, it has been forced into an inquiry.
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