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 ...
If you grew up in the Boston area when I did it was all on display.
I worked for a Large Utility in the area and was cursed out by a follower of one of my mothers cousins, He was a Pol, clan system, for being a very Right Wing Republican, got very nasty.
I pointed out to him that my mothers family were Scots Protestants until one of my clan got a stiff pee-pee and married a papist.
I’m not talking about Boston Irish-Americans. I’m talking about the Irish of Ireland.
Except in Boston the question is whom are you related to.
I don’t really understand your posts. What’s NYC have to do with it?
Yes, Ireland was/is a poor country and, yes, those in charge were probably doing the best they could, but it is hard to look at all the great wealth and power held by the Vatican and not wonder why more couldn't have been done to alleviate the misery and dire needs of those lives put in the care of this church. Like I have said repeatedly, this gives ALL Christian pro-lifers a black eye and it doesn't matter how long ago it happened. We shouldn't be seen as denying, covering up or transferring blame to avoid a rightful reckoning these innocent souls deserve.
And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being. (Genesis 9:5)
If you haven’t noticed the similarities you have lived a very sheltered life,
How are the Irish “virulently anti-Semitic?”
And how are the attitudes of the Irish to American influence in the world worse than other European countries (e.g., France). What makes you say the are “disgustingly anti-American?”
In my exposure they run a close second in being pro-American, behind Australians. You’re always going to find sour leftists spouting canned down-with-Americanisms anywhere. The Irish people as a whole are not anti-American because they have so many distant kin here and they know it.
You do realize the Irish absolutely despise Americans calling themselves “Irish,” don’t you?
And I don’t think Irish-Americans are anything like the whacked-out Irish. Our citizens need to get over identifying with the Irish.
Oh, and they now blame us for their behavior during “The Troubles.” Just ‘cause Uncle Ted sent them a couple of bullets.
This is from ynet news - an Israeli news source; I hope the link works. It’s from 2011. Maybe they’ve shaped up since then, although I guess I can post more articles.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4149059,00.html
You may not have noticed this link from The Telegraph, also cited above. I'll give you two paragraphs here:
"3. There is a wide variation in reports of how well the home operated. Undeniably, it was dilapidated and often took the appearance of a nightmare. Yet a Board of Heath report in 1935 described it as “one of the best managed institutions in the country” and in 1949, a local newspaper said that an inspection had found, “everything in very good order and congratulated the sisters on the excellent conditions.” The sisters immunized the children and lobbied for money to improve the facilities.
"4. The home never left the hands of the County Council. This point is important because it contradicts any impression that what went on at Tuam was a reflection of the unique callousness of the Catholic authorities: in fact, it was an institution that relied on state money. In 1951, the sisters begged the Council for more cash. In 1949, they met with Senator Martin Quinn and told him that children were suffering as a result of a lack of funds, to which he replied, “I do not like these statements which receive such publicity”. And, ashamedly, the locals actually complained about the cost to the ratepayers of financing the home."
How many articles managed to convey the fact that it was actually a County Home, to which the Bon Secours Sisters were donating their services without wages??
How is it that none of the "investigative reporters" noted that although the County Council didn't give the infants and children enough to live on, the Sisters by heroic care maintained an above 80% survival rate despite overcrowded wards and epidemic contagious diseases, while the survival rate was lower in other public institutions, and even in the Irish population at large. (Scroll down til you get to the Irish Press newspaper clipping from 1935, which mentions the overall infant death rate in Cork, Waterford, and Limerick as being higher than that at the orphans' home at Tuam.)
You have read enough to realize that there was horrific suffering for malnourished little ones dying of infectious diseases for which there were no vaccines and no antibiotics. The Red Cross did nothing. The political apparatus in Belfast (Ulster) and Dublin (the Republic) did nothing. Businesses, labor unions, universities, and hospitals did nothing. The County did damn little. But the Sisters fed, nursed, and educated everyone who came to them, with an over 80% success rate in terms of child survival.
By all means, let's investigate this high, wide and deep. In the end, I don't think we'll be blaming these poor childrens' deaths on the only people who labored to save them.
Here’s another link. If you want more, I’d simply google “Ireland hates Israel.” “Ireland hates Jews” works very nicely as well.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/articles/article.aspx/12254#,USdpZtOXIU
This has all been extremely interesting.
I think I’m done. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
I missed the “story” entirely originally. Maybe it hit while we were on vacation.
I was there this time last year, in 21 of the 32 counties. I did not run into anything resembling what you describe.
I guess you didn’t run into the President of Ireland.
It’s not worth it. They want to believe what they want to believe. But I very much liked your posts and very much appreciate you taking the time to write them.
No, but I wouldn’t want people judging us by what our president says either
I suppose it's something to watch out for in oneself. When I read a poorly-sourced story about some atrocity, do I want it to be true, because it "proves" what I already believe about Those People?
I recall some of the stories that came out after Hurricane Katrina, which were later revealed to be journalistic fictions. Were they believable because we "know" that's what the black urban underclass is like?
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