‘How many more graves are there around the country?’

By Maurice Garvey

CONFIRMATION that the remains of babies and children are buried in the grounds of the former mother and baby home in Tuam, Galway, received sharp condemnations and anger, but not many were surprised.

It is a drum that some have been banging for quite a time, including Catherine Corless who first raised concerns about the site.

Survivors across the country are looking for more information on other institutions, with a suspicion that more graves exists.

Tallaght man Tony Kelly, visited the Tuam grave site last year, and managed to get copies of HSE documents surrounding practices at institutions in Tuam and Bessborough, Cork.

The files contained reports that nuns were falsifying the deaths of babies before selling them for adoption in the USA in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.

Kelly subsequently delivered the evidence he collected to the HSE in September, and then to gardai on February 17.

“The HSE has either acted or not acted – if they did act then the government didn’t,” said Kelly.

“Everyone said this didn’t happen, but thanks to the hard work of Catherine Corless, we now have the names of those buried at Tuam. I have hidden files of 1,000 mothers and babies in Tuam and Bessborough, and in Castlepollard, Westmeath, there are up to 500 children buried there.

“It is only reasonable to ask the question, how many more graves are there around the country. I reported it to gardai as it’s a crime to withhold evidence of a crime.”

Clondalkin resident David Kinsella, who was born in St Patrick’s Mother and Baby home on the Navan Road, feels “lucky to be alive.”

David said: “I could have been one of those babies in the ground. I’m convinced infants are buried there. Infants were sent out for dissection and used for medical science.

“Mary Lou McDonald said on Wednesday, that the government has been sitting on the commission’s second interim report for six months. Survivors have been hit with a double whammy this week, the graves and also the long process to get justice for ageing citizens.”

Paul Redmond, from the Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors, said a major challenge for survivors was they are “divided”, but said the terms of reference into the Commission of Investigation has to be extended.

He said CMABHS have contacted the Taoiseach to “immediately meet elderly, and dying” survivors.

Speaking during the Claire Byrne show on RTÉ, Terri Harrison, a Parkwest resident who gave birth in Bessborough and never saw her son again, called for survivors to be “given their dignity back.”

“We love to hear our children were cared for, but that wasn’t our consent – I’m still waiting on my son to come in the door after 44 years,” she said.