Catherine Corless, the woman from Tuam, who researched and published the facts about the ‘secret burial place’ of up to 800 babies near the Bon Secours Mother and Child home in Tuam is a brave woman. She was determined to make known the truth about the horrific deaths of the children and the secret burials. It is a shocking story. It is hard to believe and yet I remember back to the time when an unmarried woman had a baby, she was shunned and treated as a ‘fallen’ or ‘loose woman’. There was never any mention of the man who often forced himself on the woman and made her pregnant. He got away in the smoke. It was a dreadful situation in ‘holy Catholic Ireland’ and it was the same in the north and the south. Many women were forced to go to England – forcibly exiled from their native home. Few ever returned. This was the height of hypocrisy in holy Catholic Ireland.
The brutality and inhumanity in institutions run by the Catholic Church by religious sisters in places like the Magdalene laundries is shocking and very disturbing. How could even some women who committed their lives to God be so cruel? How was it allowed to go on? Did parish priests and bishops collude with it? Of course, they did. Girls who were pregnant were shut away and treated as less than human by some women religious who were supposed to be following a special religious way of life. The facts are scary. How could they act in such an anti-Christian way? How did they understand the command of Christ to love your neighbour as yourself? Maybe therein lies a clue. Did they love themselves? Hardly, when they could treat other women expecting babies so cruelly.
What went on in these Homes reflected the society at the time. I believe the situation was exacerbated by Partition when the country was divided into two confessional states. In the southern state the Catholic Church assumed immense power and importance. Few had the courage to take it on. In the North the power was concentrated in Protestant hands and again nobody was prepared to challenge it. Protestant run homes were also guilty of cruelty to women and children.
In the south the Catholic Church (hierarchy and clergy) and the State colluded in the brutal treatment of unmarried mothers. This happened in a so-called Christian country. It makes you wonder about the moral compass of a society that allowed this to happen.
When I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, cruelty and brutality were common place in schools – in Catholic schools –even in Catholic grammar schools. If you told your parents that you were slapped at school you risked getting another hammering for misbehaving. It was a shocking system and a violent culture which was dominated by the authoritarian Church.
We must be thankful to the EU for introducing laws that made the beating and slapping of children a punishable crime. So, maybe, we are becoming more civilised as a society? Or are we?
There are many areas of life that should cause us concern today. We have no cause for complacency. We must reflect on the homeless in our cities and towns, on the way that gays and lesbians are treated today; we should think about the domestic violence against women, and on the way prisoners are treated, on the way children are deprived in poor neighbourhoods, on the way immigrants are received, on the way mentally ill people are treated and on the way older people are treated. Are we really able to say that we are much better now?
We are still far from living in a civilised or humane society. There is a lot of bullying going on which has dreadful consequences. Young people now have the use of mobile phones to engage in cyber bullying. Who cares about the refugees and immigrants? Who cares about the destruction of Planet Earth, our Common Home? Does the wealthy West care about the ongoing starvation, poverty and cruelty in many parts of Africa? There is silence from many in high places who say nothing about the abuse of human beings in our society and in our world. The apathy of so many who know what is going on and yet do not want to do anything is disgraceful. Pope Francis, to his credit, does speak out, as did the prophets of old, reminding us that we cannot be complacent about the present even as we are constantly reminded of the horrible stories of brutality and inhumanity especially towards women in the past.
(I was prompted to write this after watching the film The Magdalene Sisters on TV and after the revelations about the Mother and Babies home in Tuam.)
I notice you didn’t mention abortion Joe. Another trait in our modern society that existed back then: COWARDICE
In a lot of cases abortion equals cowardice.
I don’t know what you mean by that, I was questioning Joe about avoiding tough issues and favouring populism as is his wont
Joe,the catholic schools where thuggery took place were staffed by teachers who were overwhelmingly SDLP supporters and in many casesSDLP members.I well recall pupils from republican areas and families being lectured ad nauseum about “the men of violence” and then being beaten without mercy by these thugs in suits.
Deluded thugs in black garments espousing superstitious nonsense about a sky daddy The complete rubbish used to brainwash the vulnerable It doesn’t surprise me in the least what happened in Tuam Catholicism is built on brutality, murder and corruption as historically recorded
“It is hard to believe and yet I remember back to the time when an unmarried woman had a baby, she was shunned and treated as a ‘fallen’ or ‘loose woman’.”
The catholic Church created the problem.They created the rules that led to abuse of women and children born out of wedlock
Since an abnormally high value was placed on chastity and self-restraint, Irish attitudes and prejudices demanded social exclusion, ostracism and intense disapproval.
Then the catholic church created a solution – not abortion but a product.
The “product” was sold in illegal adoptions or disposed of otherwise. The “fallen” women paid for their “sin” with slavery in magdalene laundries etc.
These are very basic rules of business.This was a business!
“There was never any mention of the man who often forced himself on the woman and made her pregnant. He got away in the smoke”.
The system was set up in such a way that even a man who might have been interested in taking care of the woman and the child had no say in the matter –
Secrecy was all important “She went away to work”
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/the-way-we-were-single-mums/
Michael C never misses an opportunity to have a cut at the S D L P.Fr Joe in his blog referred to “cruelty and brutality “from teachers in the 50s/60s.To my knowledge,the S D L P was only founded in the early 70s.But why let a few inconvenient facts get in the way of a visceral hatred!
The sins of our Churches and State, both North & South are a tragedy.
Yes there were bad priests,but to tar them all with the same brush is wrong.
Both our Clergy & Politicians were wrong.
Their sins were wrong but their cover up was even worse
It is the job of our people to help those who suffered and ensure it does not happen now or ever
Argenta,I was a pupil in the 70’s when teachers still practised thuggery against their pupils .It was only outlawed several years after I left in 75.Indeed they even used a tactic from the Nazis or black and tans ,that of collective punishment.- own up or everybody gets a hiding!
Michael C
In your original post,you clearly stated that this “thuggery ” was practiced predominantly by teachers who were S D L P members.I gather from your posts that you’re from Mid -Ulster,so was this alleged practice confined to your school or was it widespread in other adjacent areas also?Were there any priests or Christian Brothers in your school?Did your parents make any complaints about this “rampant thuggery “?Were there other staff members who were non-political but were complicit in this practice?!
Corporal punishment was the norm in all schools at the time and the teaching professsion was the home of the Catholic middle class who overwhelmingly supported the SDLP. This support covered the spectrum from those who voted SDLP to actual members of the SDLP .