NY Times: The lost children of Tuam

read that this afternoon, terrific piece of writing.

Tell me how wrote: »

Is there any other species with the capacity to inflict such pain on its fellow beings in this way? For no material gain?

This sentence is in no way the most horrific element of the article but for some reason I found it very upsetting. To think of the life that that misfortunate child had lived and to go from the elation of thinking they were receiving a treat to the realisation that they were being laughed at, within a few seconds, must have been so upsetting.

totally agree. its like this dogged drive that catherine had to get to the root of what went on was in no small part due to her own childhood and hte incredible guilt she felt being so close to this horror and the casual cruelty the whole of society inflicted on them. its very obvious that she feels guilt to this day for how she treated these kids despite being an innocent kid and knowing no better at the time
what hit me the most about the article was the tendency to dismiss or explain away her horrific findings by locals and by the community before this story went global. 'famine grounds" blah blah blah. It speaks to this societal thing where we pulled down the blinds instead of confronting the reality head on and got on with our days. I know it's a lot more complex than that and it was a very different ireland, but its scary to think that catherines original essay could have gathered dust in a journal in a local library had it not been picked up by a national newspaper

reminds me of that saying - 'the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing'

Well all of these religious organisations were great at having two tiers and two faces.

If you were middle class, you went to the fee paying school (small barrier fee to keep out the plebs, not the full economic fee) and you had VHI so went to the private hospital.

You met lovely nuns, priests and religious who were absolutely charming.

Meanwhile, if you’d no money or, worse still if you did something to offend the church like have a baby outside marriage, you saw the other face - the brutal, uncaring one that those with power and influence never had to experience.

Basically, they preserved and enhanced the Victorian and Edwardian class system and added an extra dose of brutality to it.

It’s also why I think to this day, we can’t solve healthcare problems here because the people who are the movers, the shakers and those with influence and ability to yell louder don’t use the public system. If a continental public system were failing this badly, it would be getting attacked by the talking heads and the business people, the lawyers, the engineers and so on. However, in Ireland if you’ve a middle class income you aren’t beholden to the public system so you don’t care. The issues never become as politically serious, so nothing changes.

I think that problem stems from the religious running hospitals and an on going ideology that persists that public healthcare is charity and not a public service and it’s good enough for you!

Likewise, we’ve schools segregated by religion and gender which has lead to a vast array of small, crappy schools with huge administrative overheads - there’s a principal and a full management structure, building and maintenance overheads for every flavour of religious school that has flourished.

The result is resources are spread thin. We’ve schools without adequate services - libraries, IT, science, art, psychological support services etc etc and it also wastes money in urban areas on endless duplication that could be going into provision of better services in remote areas too.

You know in the 1950s the state actually let the Legion of Mary basically run the probation service!?

There’s a lot of legacy from that days when the church de facto ran Ireland, using OUR money and OUR resources.

We had the Costello coming out with this as Taoiseach:

“I, as a Catholic, obey my church authorities and will continue to do so . . . There will be no flouting of the authority of the bishops in the matter of Catholic social or moral teaching.” (Dail debate)

““On the occasion of our assumption of office and of the first Cabinet meeting, my colleagues and myself desire to repose at the feet of your Holiness the assurance of our filial and of our devotion to your August Person, as well as our firm resolve to be guided in all our work by the teaching of Christ, and to strive for the attainment of the social order in Ireland based on Christian principles.” (Chairing his first cabinet meeting).

And say what you like about FG and Enda, but he was one of the first if not the first Taoiseach to really take an an actual modern, progressive and genuinely republican stance on this:

“My book is the Constitution . . . That’s the people’s book and we live in a republic and I have a duty and responsibility, as head of government, to legislate in respect of what the people’s wishes are”.

And when someone brought up excommunication he said “I have my own way of speaking to my God.”

Finally, someone in that office who had the balls to say that! I may disagree with FG on many aspects of economic policy at the moment and I’m a lot more left leaning, but it was the first time I found myself actually feeling a Taoiseach understood the job description and I respect him for that.

I just feel if we want to honor the legacy of those people who suffered under our 20th century regime, we need to make this republic a genuine one. It means a hell of a lot more than “not a monarchy” or “not British”.

Maybe 100+ years after the proclamation, we might finally start to live up to it!