Sir . – The hypocrisy around the Tuam babies is breathtaking. Every one of these little infants had a father who abandoned them. The young mothers were also abandoned by the fathers and by their families. The nuns, who are now being reviled, tried to support the “fallen” women. There were no fallen men.
This State paid the nuns a pittance for each mother they took in. – Yours, etc,
BREEDA KELLY,
Rathnew,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – The mission statement of the Bon Secours Health System aspires for the organisation to be “A leader in Catholic healthcare in Ireland”. Catholic healthcare? How about just healthcare? How about just education? It is time for church and state to separate. – Yours, etc,
ADELE COCCHIGLIA,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – The Church of Ireland is at pains to point out that it did not “own or run” the Bethany Home (March 8th).
Its clergy sent unmarried mothers there, collected funds, endorsed its aims and methods, and sat on its management committee. It was a recognised part of the “welfare” apparatus of the Church of Ireland. That is why the then Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Gregg, spoke at Bethany’s opening ceremony and had money donated in his name.
The Church of Ireland formed part of the “apparatus of containment” of unmarried mothers. The two main institutions of Protestant containment were the Church of Ireland Magdalen Home and Bethany Home.
The CofI missionary Society, the Irish Church Missions (ICM) provided clergy for the Bethany Home Management Committee. They spoke at Bethany Home meetings, as did ICM superintendents. Bethany children were sent on to the ICM’s Children’s Fold (later, Boley) orphanage.
The ICM assertion that such clergy “were not in any way representing the society” is risible. Who or what were they representing when managing or endorsing the Bethany Home?
As I pointed out recently in the Church of Ireland Gazette (March 3rd), it is a familiar ICM refrain that the Church of Ireland leadership does not represent the ICM version of Anglicanism. It is likely that the ICM were more at home in Bethany than in the company of many fellow clergy.
The ICM in particular should face up to its responsibilities.
Presbyterians, Methodists, and Plymouth Brethren also have a part to play in acknowledging what happened to unmarried mothers and their abandoned offspring. We hear too little from them. This is not a time for Protestants to keep their heads down.
Join us in openly calling for redress for Protestant and Roman Catholic survivors of mother and baby and other institutions. – Yours, etc,
DEREK LEINSTER,
Chairman,
Bethany Survivors
Rugby,
Warwickshire,
England.
Sir, – In light of the treatment meted out to whistleblowers in this century, one can barely imagine what would have befallen one in the middle of the last century. – Yours, etc,
JOHN McDWYER,
Carrick on Shannon,
Co Leitrim.
Sir, – With the recent revelations around the grim discovery in Tuam and the worrying possibility that there may be far more to come, how do we as a society plan to acknowledge what happened and move on? Given that the vast majority of perpetrators of these crimes are either long departed or are in their final days, the wheels of justice will not turn in this case.
Can I suggest that we examine the possibility of something along the lines of a truth and reconciliation commission, where families and individuals who suffered as a result of church and State-sponsored abuse such as in Tuam could be asked to come forward and share their stories and experiences?
These stories should be listened to and recorded and preserved so that in time the children of today can at least see that we attempted to enable people to step out of the shadows and share their pain. – Yours, etc,
CIARAN PEPPARD,
Clonakilty,
Co Cork.
Sir, – It is evident that the state and its citizens in general share to a degree with those who ran and supervised the mother and babies homes and the Magdalen laundries the shame of this horror and the cruelty it inflicted on the most vulnerable. It seems to me that a proper memorial in a prominent position should be erected.
Such a memorial should be funded by public contributions, thereby acknowledging the manner in which the public, many of whom knew and turned a blind eye, share some of the guilt for the suffering of the many women and young girls of the nation. – Yours, etc,
MATTHEW A HARMEY,
Dublin 8.
A chara, – In response to the Tuam mother and baby home scandal, both Philip O'Neill ("the first port of call must be ourselves") and T Gerard Bennett ("the personal responsibility that each of us bears in this") attempt to deflect some of the responsibility for the scandal away from religious organisations (March 9th). But where did our forebears acquire their morality if not from the pulpits of the two major churches?
Our response should be to call on the Minister for Education to enact legislation to dismantle the system of patronage that allows the two major churches to control 96 per cent of primary schools and for the state to assume its responsibility in line with the European Court of Human Rights judgement in favour of Louise O’Keeffe in 2014. Although this will not undo the damage done to Irish women and children in past decades, it may go some way to prevent such abject cruelty from happening again. – Is mise,
GREG SCANLON,
Shannon,
Co Clare.