Times were truly different then ,, these young women really were shunned by society and although I’m sure that many wanted to keep their children that many if not most were pressured into agreeing to adoption ,, just as today most women who abort are pressured by family and partners .. These homes may have been state funded or partially supported but they were on a budget that I am sure was near impossible to meet ... I am also sure that because of the relatively small number of deaths over such a long period of time that they worked hard to provide decent medical care... This was rural ... like backwoods West Virginia rural ... BUT WITH LESS MONEY!
Time to get the best understanding we can from the documents and move on ,, this facility closed 53 years ago ,, even a novice nun in 1961 would be in her 70’s now, and the nuns that were running the facility in it’s heyday are all dead.
Not everything in life is pretty , no matter how hard you work at it... sometimes your best (their best) isn’t enough ... but you keep at it and do your best .. and that’s what they did.
"The whole building was fresh and clean. In the garden at the back of the House, children were singing. I walked along the path and was mobbed by over a score of the younger children. They said nothing but each struggled to shake my hand. Their hands were clean and cool. Then I realised that to these children I was a potential adopter who might take some boy or girl away to a real home. It was pathetic. Finally I said: 'Children, I'm not holding a reception.' They stopped struggling and looked at me. Then a nun told them to stand on the lawn and sing me a song in Irish. This they did very sweetly. At the Dogs Home, Battersea, every dog barks at the visitors in the hope that it will be taken away."
In order to visit and write about the Bon Secours home at Tuam as well as the Magdalen Laundries, Dr. Sutherland had to seek permission from Bishop Michael John Brown, and was required to agree to edit anything that the Mother Superior wanted changed or removed.
So, was it a dirt poor, struggling place barely hanging on by a thread, or was it as described above by an internationally renowned doctor?