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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe documented, yet ignored horrors of Ireland's baby homes.
Adoption Rights Alliance Co-Founder, Susan Lohan said that the Tuam scandal is not isolated and that mother-and-baby homes in Ireland were known to have high mortality rates.
In his 1989 book To Cure and To Care Memoirs of a Chief Medical Officer, former Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health James Deeny spoke of his concerns at the inordinately high child death rates at Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork.
He estimated that 100 out of 180 babies born at the home for unmarried mothers, run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, died in one year.
Dr Deeny was so concerned that he travelled to Cork to visit the home, said Ms Lohan. Initially he couldnt see any reason for the high death rate but then asked one of the nuns if he could look at the babies nappies.
When the nappies were opened, it emerged the babies and toddlers were sitting in putrefying diarrhoea that was being ignored and the nuns wanted it all covered up.
Ms Lohan said it is widely believed that many children who died in the homes had health and disability needs that were not addressed, or suffered generalised neglect.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/call-for-mother-and-baby-home-inquiry-270865.html
me b zola
(19,053 posts)We must demand justice.
dilby
(2,273 posts)Heck Abortion is still illegal in Ireland it's just the stigma of being a pregnant unwed mother is not as harsh.
Warpy
(111,405 posts)although they generally need family support to do so and it's only comfortable in the cities.
It's either that or an English or Dutch "holiday." Or leaving permanently.
rusty fender
(3,428 posts)Sick, sick, sick. The nuns probably thought that the bastard babies deserved to die a horrible death. If any of these nuns are still alive, they need to be tried for manslaughter.