Experts find mass grave at ex-Catholic orphanage in Ireland

[StevieM]

Source: Associated Press

~snip~

DUBLIN (AP) — A mass grave containing the remains of babies and young children has been discovered at a former Catholic orphanage in Ireland, government-appointed investigators announced Friday in a finding that offered the first conclusive proof following a historian's efforts to trace the fates of nearly 800 children who perished there.

The judge-led Mother and Baby Homes Commission said excavations since November at the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, had found an underground structure divided into 20 chambers containing "significant quantities of human remains."

The commission said DNA analysis of selected remains confirmed the ages of the dead ranged from 35 weeks to 3 years old and were buried chiefly in the 1950s, when the overcrowded facility was one of more than a dozen in Ireland offering shelter to orphans, unwed mothers and their children. The Tuam home closed in 1961.

Friday's findings provided the first proof after decades of suspicions that the vast majority of children who died at the home had been interred on the site in unmarked graves. That was a common, but ill-documented practice at such Catholic-run facilities amid high child mortality rates in early 20th century Ireland.


Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/experts-mass-grave-ex-catholic-orphanage-ireland-134424849.html

[smirkymonkey]

1. I wonder if these were all natural deaths.

[Leith]

4. Only If You Consider Severe Neglect and Starvation "Natural"

It was the worst teachings taken to the worst extremes that did it.

[smirkymonkey]

12. That's sick.

And they call themselves Christian.

[elmac]

9. Because they were born out of wedlock

most were starved and neglected, a horrific way to die, this, in the name of religion.

[smirkymonkey]

13. They were innocent.

I don't know how these people can be against abortion yet starve and neglect children born out of wedlock. I simply do not understand it. It is so hypocritical.

[Leith]

2. This Is Just the Latest in a Long Line of Atrocities

It has been happening, as far as people know, up through the 1970s. Apparently it's more important to punish young women for having sex than anything else. Watch the movie Philomena to get a glimpse of what happened.

And people wonder why I'm not religious...

[StevieM]

5. The Baby Scoop Era was a disgraceful time, and Ireland may well have been worse than anywhere.

eom

[Wellstone ruled]

6. So true,

how about the Church run Indian Schools.

[elleng]

7. Yes, Philomena.

Thanks for reminding me of the name.

[Boomerproud]

3. This is how the real story of the Magdalene Laundries surfaced.

Lots of explaining to do. I'm certain all we'll ever get is "well...sorry." Poor children who were non-existent in this world.

[Merlot]

16. The movie of the same name is heartbreaking

what was done to these women and children. It's a chilling film, worse than a horror movie because it's true.

[Ligyron]

8. And people still say the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world.

It's things like this that make me glad I turned my back on "gawd" and religion long ago.

[Gymbo]

10. Is this definitive proof that

St. Patrick didn't run all the snakes out of Ireland after all.

[keithbvadu2]

11. The babies were illegitimate and born from sin.

The babies were illegitimate and born from sin.

To the Catholic church, they were not real humans.

The Church was not exactly 'pro-life'.

[delisen]

14. Unwed mothers and their children-It wasn't stoning but was on the continuum.

Such a threat to the society they had to be removed, hidden, isolated, deprived of care necessary to sustain life.

To be removed so that everyone else could lead lives measured out in coffee spoons.

[frogmarch]

15. Joni Mitchell's "Magdalene Laundries"

was about places such as this.

[dembotoz]

17. Perhaps Sinead O'Connor was justified

[msanthrope]

18. She was. nt

[The Sand Reckoner]

19. She was, completely

and more. The catholic church is the sickest and most corrupt organization in human history.

[hunter]

25. Come on, slavery and genocide by white U.S.A. was no picnic.

Not to mention our propping up of vile dictators around the world.

But I guess U.S. Americans are not quite Nazis so we're not too bad.

The only community I ever quit was the Sierra Club because I thought they were clueless affluent white people; hypocrites who left a trail of environmental and social wreckage behind them wherever they went. The backpack-on-the-airport-luggage-turnstile "greens" are even worse. "If only everyone acted white and concerned about the environment as I am..." is not the answer to any environmental problem.

But yeah, the fiercest critics of the Catholic Church are correct, including my mom, who ghost wrote a book for a victim of the church. Nevertheless my family is Catholic in the pacifist social justice tradition. I don't feel any need to apologize for deplorable Catholic communities any more than I'd apologize for deplorable Trump communities.

[The Sand Reckoner]

27. The catholic church

has been propping up vile dictators and despots for far longer than the United States has existed. They used to hide behind the name of "kings" who claimed their right to rule came from "god" (the catholic god, of course). They were enthusiastic supporters and enablers of genocide in the New World long before 1776, all in the name of spreading their religious hegemony.

[Solly Mack]

20. She was.

[Solly Mack]

21. K&R

From 2014

Demanding justice for women and children abused by Irish nuns

The government has now called another inquiry into what happened at another church-run institution, the Mother and Baby homes for unmarried mothers, after it was revealed earlier this year that nearly 800 young children had been buried in unmarked graves from 1925-1961 at a convent in the west of Ireland. Some remains were found in a concrete tank.

[StevieM]

23. See my post right below yours. (eom)

[Solly Mack]

24. I'm so glad you added your thread link!!

Thank you!

[StevieM]

22. Here is a thread I started in 2014 about this matter.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025044162

[HoneyBadger]

26. A lot of people need to go to jail for this

The Church may not survive it.