Posted on 06/11/2014 7:03:49 AM PDT by Renfield
A mass grave containing the bodies of up to 800 babies has reportedly been found near a former home for unwed mothers in Ireland.
The children were likely buried in secret in a concrete tank alongside the St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home, which was run by nuns in Tuam, Galway for a period of 36 years. The home closed in 1961.
The exterior of the St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway.(Catherine Corless/Facebook)
Newly-discovered reports show that many of the children died from malnutrition and neglect, or from complications associated with measles, pneumonia, TB, gastroenteritis, and other diseases.
Local historian Catherine Corless uncovered the grave and is part of a group pushing for an investigation and a memorial to mark the site, which is now surrounded by a housing estate.
The mass grave is the latest and most shocking development in the home's dark history. Local health board inspectors reported horrifying conditions after a visit to the home in 1944. At that time, 333 unwed women and their children were living there, far exceeding the home's capacity of 243.
Most children were between the ages of 3 weeks and 13 months. They were "fragile, pot-bellied and emaciated," according to the inspectors' report. One of them, a 13-month-old boy, had "no control over bodily functions" and was "probably mentally defective."
A 1932 ad from a local newspaper offers a chilling glimpse into that world.
Children's Home Tuam: Contract for Coffins (Connaught Tribune, 30 Jan, 1932): pic.twitter.com/skBTbnDuAW
— Shane (@scary_biscuits) May 27, 2014
Homes for unwed mothers were common in Ireland during the late-19th and early-20th centuries.
Another such home, Sean Ross Abbey in Tipperary, was depicted in the Oscar-nominated flim "Philomena." The film tells the true story of Philomena Lee, a young Irish woman was staying in an Irish home for unwed mothers in the 1950s when suddenly one day the nuns took her 3-year-old son and adopted him to an American couple.
That was one very tragic story. Now we have 800 more.
The "outside nursery" at Sea Ross Abbey. (Brian Lockier/Adoption Rights Alliance)
Children in the play room at Sean Ross Abbey. (Brian Lockier/Adoption Rights Alliance)
The tea room at Sean Ross Abbey. (Brian Lockier/Adoption Rights Alliance)
Nuns stand over the cribs of small babies at Sean Ross Abbey. (Brian Lockier/Adoption Rights Alliance)
Ireland: Historian refutes ‘septic tank’ story ... http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=24911
The children in those pictures don’t appear malnourished.
Not sure if this is related but there was a movie called “sisters of Magdalene” i think, about these nuns in Ireland raising orphan girls... it was horrific!!
Albion Wilde said, on another thread:
I am not defending any misconduct. But I am disappointed some freepers’ open eagerness to believe the rank inaccuracy and sensationalism of the reporting, in light of the anti-Christian and anti-Catholic agenda and propaganda sweeping Western nations supported and funded by Marxists, from the One World financiers to the UN to the Islamists.
Let’s take a look at how hysterically misleading this “800 babies in a septic tank” headline is. As two earlier posts have indicated:
• There has not even been an establishment of fact that the container was a septic tank, and
• the historian on whose work this story was based said she did not characterize the container as a septic tank,
• nor did she report on any 800 remains in such a tank.
• What she did was research public records on paper of 800 child deaths at the home from various causes, over a period of many decades.
• The actual burial places of approximately 775 of those children had not been determined as of the above article, due to a lack of funding.
• There is no evidence whether Catholic rites were or were not performed.
• The eyewitnesses who discovered the container in 1975 said they saw, at most, 20 small skulls.
• The remains could have been children, could have been miscarried fetuses, could have been from the 20th century or could have been from the Potato Famine era.
Since so few forensic determinations have yet been made, the headline is obviously intended to stir up hatred and disgust, and it has worked among quite a number of freepers.
Another left wing fraud bash on Catholicism and Christendom.
Good catch.
I was gonna point out to Renfield that this is old news and that Forbes had debunked it.
(Although I’m not convinced Forbes is right. This may be a hoax - maybe not)
Since 2001, the Irish government has acknowledged that women in the Magdalene laundries were victims of abuse. However, the Irish government has resisted calls for investigation and proposals for compensation; it maintains the laundries were privately run and abuses at the laundries are outside the government’s remit.[29]
Well, at least they dropped the septic tank bit.
Also, at what level were these children found? I’ve learned through my interest in the finding of King Richard the Third that at what level of soil a body is buried is what determines when the person lived and died. Obviously, the closer to the surface, the later the burial. Now that they’ve knocked off the septic tank lie, I wonder if these were 19th and early 20th century children. Just a thought.
Seems this hateful rubbish is still making its rounds on FR.
After having read the links posted here to refute the original post, I see them as straw-man arguments, focusing on impertinent details. The fact is that hundreds of children were kept (by a church-run institution) in deplorable and inhumane conditions, and died of preventable ailments.
I just duplicated your link. I guess I should read a few posts before posting, eh?
The more the merrier.
Are we taking into account the general health of infants at this era in time? Infant mortality was once very high. We take the reverse for granted.
Put me down as having high suspicion that this is a catholic-bashing enterprise.
Related only in the sense that it was another hateful screed against Catholic Christianity:
Looks like a cousins birthday party in my Gramma's basement in the 50s.
If it was in a movie, it must be true!
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