Bodies of Evidence: Unearthing Ireland’s Children of Shame
From the 1920’s until the 1990’s, unwed mothers in Ireland were forced into institutions such as Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby homes in order to conceal their sin of premarital sex and conceiving out of wedlock from the public eye.
Within these institutions, run by religious organizations like the Bon Secours Nuns and Presbyterians/ Plymouth Brethren, these women and their children were subject to horrific abuse. The infant mortality rates of these institutions were nearly double the national rates. Reports show that 1 in 7 children born into these homes died from preventable illnesses, neglect, or malnutrition. Many children were stolen from their mothers and either boarded out as free laborers to local families or trafficked to wealthy families in Europe and the US through illegal adoptions.
In 2014, a news story broke claiming there may be as many as 800 children believed to have been buried in a mass grave where the Bon Secour Mother and Baby Home in Tuam once stood. This set off an outcry from the public to launch an investigation into these homes and into the dark secrets they hid from the public. This investigation led to uncovering the truth of how the religious orders behind these institutions profited off taking advantage of these “fallen women” while leaving many of them homeless and destitute and forcing mothers to give up their children for adoption against their will. This is a story of the overreach of religious power and how dangerous it can be to pursue a facade of holy uprightness and purity within a broken society, leaving innocent children as victims and collateral damage.
Sources used in this episode:
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/social-affairs/2023/06/04/every-little-bone-the-difficult-exhumation-ahead-at-tuams-former-mother-and-baby-home/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethany_Home
https://www.christianpost.com/news/catholic-leagues-bill-donohue-claims-headlines-of-800-babies-discovered-in-mass-gave-in-ireland-is-hoax-and-mass-hysteria.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Secours_Mother_and_Baby_Home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_and_Baby_Homes_Commission_of_Investigation
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54693159
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/bethany-home-no-exception-to-high-rates-of-infant-mortality-in-protestant-run-institution-1.4456513
https://www.tuambabies.org/tuam-baby-names.html
https://youtu.be/LxAz-mkNBMU?si=M4aSk_R5KXyr_gRq
https://youtu.be/VtH0bXVE0QI?si=y4wKJsKEBOJm3Ywk
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/redacted-lives/id1652079463
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