Posted on 06/10/2014 9:04:38 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
Few of us are inclined to look a gift horse in the mouth, and that applies in spades to journalists running with a sensational news story. But even by normal media standards, recent reports about the bones of 796 babies being found in the septic tank of an Irish orphanage betray a degree of cynicism and irresponsibility rarely surpassed by allegedly reputable news organizations.
Although the media attributed the “dumped in a septic tank” allegation to Catherine Corless, a local amateur historian, she denies making it. Her attempt to correct the record was reported by the Irish Times newspaper on Saturday (see here) but has been almost entirely ignored by the same global media that so gleefully recycled the original suggestion.
Today the Irish Times has published a reader’s letter that has further undercut the story. Finbar McCormick, a professor of geography at Queen’s University Belfast, sharply admonished the media for describing the children’s last resting place as a septic tank. He added: “The structure as described is much more likely to be a shaft burial vault, a common method of burial ...in many parts of Europe.
“In the 19th century, deep brick-lined shafts were constructed and covered with a large slab which often doubled as a flatly laid headstone. These were common in 19th-century urban cemeteries…..Such tombs are still used extensively in Mediterranean countries. I recently saw such structures being constructed in a churchyard in Croatia. The shaft was made of concrete blocks, plastered internally and roofed with large concrete slabs.
[T]he verifiable facts that have emerged so far amount merely to a strong story for the media of one small country. The one “fact” that turned all this from a disturbing national story to a screaming global sensation is one that is almost certainly false.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
There are quite a few accounts from local residents who kept the site mowed and cleaned up to the contrary, annalex. There are small skulls in the septic tank and skeletal remains according to one of the boys, now adult, who broke into it in 1975. If there’s another mass grave there, where is it? You seem to know.
It is not a septic tank, at least was not at the time of the burial, like the article explains.
Oh, so it’s a former septic tank renovated somehow into a crypt, then? Are these children in there, or are they elsewhere? That seems to be a hotly contested point.
Don't play dumb.
Reading some more:
He added: “The structure as described is much more likely to be a shaft burial vault, a common method of burial used in the recent past and still used today in many part of Europe. “In the 19th century, deep brick-lined shafts were constructed and covered with a large slab which often doubled as a flatly laid headstone. These were common in 19th-century urban cemeteries…..Such tombs are still used extensively in Mediterranean countries. I recently saw such structures being constructed in a churchyard in Croatia. The shaft was made of concrete blocks, plastered internally and roofed with large concrete slabs.“Many maternity hospitals in Ireland had a communal burial place for stillborn children or those who died soon after birth. These were sometimes in a nearby graveyard but more often in a special area within the grounds of the hospital.”
seems to be a hotly contested point
Of course. Morons spreading lies become very hot when caught.
I guess the Catholic residents of the area who have taken care of the site for decades of their own volition are just morons spreading lies, then.
Reading some more:
Although the media attributed the “dumped in a septic tank” allegation to Catherine Corless, a local amateur historian, she denies making it. Her attempt to correct the record was reported by the Irish Times newspaper on Saturday (see here) but has been almost entirely ignored by the same global media that so gleefully recycled the original suggestion. That suggestion, which seems to have first surfaced in the Mail on Sunday, a London-based newspaper, reflected appallingly on the Sisters of Bon Secours, the order of Catholic nuns at the center of the scandal.
“What I don’t understand is why even some FReepers ran so gleefully with it. Why the multiple postings with comments like “Infanticide!” “Murder!” ?”
Apparently, you are unfamiliar with the long standing freeper tradition of commenting on a posted article without having bothered to read it.
That structure was known to local residents as a septic tank for a long time, annalex. The local historian, Catherine Corless, researched death records for that home and located 796 from infant to age 9 for which there is no record of burial. You say there is a mass grave there and evidently there must be given those records. But, if not in that structure known long and widely as a septic tank to locals that you prefer to call a crypt, then where is it? If it is in fact a crypt, then why so much resistance to admitting that the bodies of these unfortunate children who died are in it? The whole thing is bizarre, I’ve been fascinated by the gyrations of the defense for over a week. You’re merely the latest to have a go.
From the link at the Forbes' article:
‘I never used that word ‘dumped’,” Catherine Corless, a local historian in Co Galway, tells The Irish Times. “I never said to anyone that 800 bodies were dumped in a septic tank. That did not come from me at any point. They are not my words.”...
In her article she concludes that many of the children were buried in an unofficial graveyard at the rear of the former home. This small grassy space has been attended for decades by local people, who have planted roses and other flowers there, and put up a grotto in one corner.
Tuam mother and baby home: the trouble with the septic tank story
That "known to local residents" is a media hoax that you parrot.
So, there’s no need to be concerned about whether the underground structure is a septic tank or a crypt, then? That’s not the mass grave we’re looking for, there’s another mass grave on the site. Correct?
What of the small skulls and skeletons in the septic tank/crypt/mass grave, are we to assume that these are famine victims from the 1800’s after all, as the local residents believed for some time? After all, they’re morons spreading lies in your estimation for believing it to be a septic tank.
You ain't just a'whistin' Dixie.
Please don’t post comments about Jews to me. I’m asking this sincerely because I don’t want to get upset or angry with you. I don’t find your posts on this subject helpful.
If those people were racially, ethnically, or culturally different it could make sense. Think Texans considering secession from the US. A small movement perhaps, but driven by the same dislike of being ruled by those (in this case, culturally/politically) different.
No problem. So long as you do not post silly comments about how “anti-Semitic” the Irish are (as if the purpose of the Irish nation is to support Israel and make Jews comfortable).
I’ll post whatever I want. I’ll try not to post to you. It’s hard sometimes because I forget the names of people on FR. But I’ll try to avoid you.
There is a need to read the article and understand its content. There is not septic tank. That is the invention of the non-local, and chiefly British press.
Yes, there are mass graves from various time periods in the area. They need to be properly marked, and the children in them need to be prayed for, as in fact they have been. The gravesites need to be properly marked, and when possible, the buried people identified by name. That is the concern.
Also, the morons spreading anti-Catholic lies needs to go back to their caves and do something productive with their lives, preferably off the Internet.
Ping!
So, it’s not a septic tank, it’s a crypt, and besides they’re not in there. Have I summarized succinctly?
"First the verdict, then the evidence!!"
But every once in awhile, I get a thanks or a tip 'o the hat from somebody who actually did plow through it all.
And I realize there are probably lurkers who "get it," without ever telling us.
I suppose I have a hope that this all goes into the archives, the immortal internet cache, the "record," and that sometime some truth-seeker will find it useful.
Then I think of the tons of USSR archives that nobody in the West evidently wants to look at, even 25 years later.
And then I think, "Well, there is a God."
I want to thank you for your efforts, with a strictly theological hope that the efforts are not wasted.
Thanks for the ping and thank you Mrs. Don-o for posting this examination of the facts. It’s very helpful. I realize it can be (is) discouraging to do much work for a post/thread only to have the work and conclusion it forces from reason ignored. Do not be discouraged, even if all the world doesn’t see it, God does which is most important anyway. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.