Tuam Babies

[Farrandeelin]

So 'tragic' you joked about it?

[laoislad]

Every time I think of this I feel physically sick. The sickos that are responsible for this should be named and shamed - even if they are no longer alive.

The cruelty with which the Catholic Church dealt with people it perceived to have broken their sex obsessed rules was and still is in places (don't forget up until recently Africans were being taught condoms give you HIV) horrific. Together with their facilitation and protection of paedophiles and their vicious tormenting of their victims it's really past time that something meaningful and honest was done by the Catholic orders to show they're actually sorry for what happened. They talk of a truth commission up north for the troubles - I think more damage has been done by agents of the church on this island. Yet they still preach to people on how to live their lives, they still own vast amounts of land and buildings while telling us to help the less well off. The hypocrisy must end if they're to have any credibility.

Sorry for going off on one....this is how I genuinely feel. Mostly when I think of the Catholic Church I feel sick.

Great post.

[Minder]

Every time I think of this I feel physically sick. The sickos that are responsible for this should be named and shamed - even if they are no longer alive.

The cruelty with which the Catholic Church dealt with people it perceived to have broken their sex obsessed rules was and still is in places (don't forget up until recently Africans were being taught condoms give you HIV) horrific. Together with their facilitation and protection of paedophiles and their vicious tormenting of their victims it's really past time that something meaningful and honest was done by the Catholic orders to show they're actually sorry for what happened. They talk of a truth commission up north for the troubles - I think more damage has been done by agents of the church on this island. Yet they still preach to people on how to live their lives, they still own vast amounts of land and buildings while telling us to help the less well off. The hypocrisy must end if they're to have any credibility.

Sorry for going off on one....this is how I genuinely feel. Mostly when I think of the Catholic Church I feel sick.

Great post.

Indeed. I have a question, going off topic. Do you put your children through the Catholic sacraments? I ask this with no agenda btw, I'm just interested. I have no children and feel very much like yourselves on the Catholic Church in Ireland.

I also appreciate that this type of question has probably been discussed before.

I know where you are coming from and I suppose you do it because it's "the thing to do", and it's a big thing for the child (communion & confirmation) but yeah I wouldn't give the church the time of day normally. I suppose you would fairly alienate the child among their peers if you excluded them from communion/confirmation

[ONeill]

Yes to that. It grates with me somewhat but it's simply a matter of the other half having the say. For me it's a game and I don't really care enough for it to be too divisive. They do nothing beyond what school asks of them.

[Main Street]

Every time I think of this I feel physically sick. The sickos that are responsible for this should be named and shamed - even if they are no longer alive.

The cruelty with which the Catholic Church dealt with people it perceived to have broken their sex obsessed rules was and still is in places (don't forget up until recently Africans were being taught condoms give you HIV) horrific. Together with their facilitation and protection of paedophiles and their vicious tormenting of their victims it's really past time that something meaningful and honest was done by the Catholic orders to show they're actually sorry for what happened. They talk of a truth commission up north for the troubles - I think more damage has been done by agents of the church on this island. Yet they still preach to people on how to live their lives, they still own vast amounts of land and buildings while telling us to help the less well off. The hypocrisy must end if they're to have any credibility.

Sorry for going off on one....this is how I genuinely feel. Mostly when I think of the Catholic Church I feel sick.

Great post.

Indeed. I have a question, going off topic. Do you put your children through the Catholic sacraments? I ask this with no agenda btw, I'm just interested. I have no children and feel very much like yourselves on the Catholic Church in Ireland.

I also appreciate that this type of question has probably been discussed before.

I know where you are coming from and I suppose you do it because it's "the thing to do", and it's a big thing for the child (communion & confirmation) but yeah I wouldn't give the church the time of day normally. I suppose you would fairly alienate the child among their peers if you excluded them from communion/confirmation

I was born a catholic but I cut the cord completely when aged 12.
My children would hardly know what is meant by the term catholic, though they were bemused on occasion by my mother's actions and images of the crucifix around her house
When it came time for confirmation they did a non-religious confirmation, but one based on morals.

[Avondhu star]

I may be a bad Catholic but I hope I'm a good Christian

[Main Street]

This Tuam horror was not a catholic religious ritual,  there is nothing in the catholic religious dogma that justifies this or caused this to happen.
The State criminalised unmarried mothers in those days, not unlike many other countries who were not "catholicised". Humanitarian forces within the free state in the 1930s brought into being the concept of mother baby homes, to take these poor woman out of the criminal system, but the State neglected their sworn constitutional duty of care to these women, the families and community around these women also neglected their duty of care, these women for the most part were from the poorest strata of society.
Plenty of other unmarried catholic mothers received support from their families and community and kept their babies.
The catholic church had a duty of care but so also did others have a sworn duty of care.

[StGallsGAA]

This is not stuff of yesteryear.  It was still happening in the 1980s!  We've come a long way...

[Main Street]

This is not stuff of yesteryear.  It was still happening in the 1980s!  We've come a long way...

This Tuam mother baby home closed in 1960, it's thought  the dead children were mostly buried in the 1950's,
altogether there were 12 such homes.

[From the Bunker]

This is tragic of course,but a product of an era when atonement for sin was very much in vogue.I got many a belt myself in catholic primary education,and my late mother and her contemporaries were beaten black and blue by nuns in school. It did not impair her faith in any way.

But it does provide a field day for anti Catholics,and their pathetic inference that the modern church is somehow responsible.I suspect these very same people have little or no actual sympathy for the victims of this scandal,but actually revel in any opportunity to attack the Catholic Church.

The problem is that the Catholic Church has left itself so open to attack. It must be one of the easiest targets at this stage. And all of the crimes are to the most vulnerable - Women and Children.

[seafoid]

The social/economic stigma of illegitimacy was the main driver of this tragedy. The catholic church ran most of the social welfare/medical/education  system as it was before the State started funding things so schools, hospitals and institutions to support single mothers were all provided by the religious orders under Fianna  Fail and early iterations of Fine Gael.  The Government did very little. The church did a decent job on the schools and hospitals.

Stigma only works when it is adopted by the population. Shunting women out of sight was a decision supported by the society. It happens in other countries now. The power of shame and exclusion is very strong. Ask gay people.

I know 2 families where a teenage daughter became pregnant in 1993, which was maybe at the tail end regarding the influence of the social views of the previous generations.

In the first family, the father was actually Protestant,  a bank manager. His daughter was in second year in Trinity. She had a relationship with a local man. There was no question of her keeping the baby. He decided. The child was adopted over the wishes of its father. The daughter went abroad and only came back twice. The emotional fallout was absolutely catastrophic. When her mother died they mentioned all of the grandchildren at the funeral. Except the child. 

In the second family the mother kept the child but separated from the father. One of her sisters told me that when her father heard that his daughter was pregnant he hit the roof. He said everything to the sister but not to his daughter and accepted the situation. Asked a few years ago he said his grandson changed his life.

[Tubberman]

You got to be f**king kidding me.


Shamrock Shore,did you mean that as a pun?

Reporting this to moderator. You're a vile person, s truly horrible man.

[Shamrock Shore]

You got to be f**king kidding me.


Shamrock Shore,did you mean that as a pun?

Oh God. He thinks I would joke about such a thing.
He thinks I am like him.

FFS.

No Tony. I did not mean that as a pun.

Jesus.

[T Fearon]

The hypocrisy on this thread is truly unbelievable.Full of fake statistics,half truths and downright insults and potentially libelous comments against the Catholic Church .

For your info there was high infant mortality rates up to the 60s.The nuns did not cause these deaths.It was common practice for corpses of young and old to be buried in unmarked graves.Not so long ago in Portadown the corpses of 40 nuns were exhumed and re interred in consecrated grounds.

So acquaint yourself with the facts before spouting manufactured indignation.

Also it is time whoever moderates this board to do their jobs and nip libellous threads like this in the bud😠😠

[quit yo jibbajabba]

Aye but sure until they do you joke away about it. You unbelievable **** of a person