Press.TV 4/6/2014
The Catholic Church in Ireland has come under fire
for child neglect after a researcher found records of 796 children said to be
buried in a mass grave beside an orphanage.
The researcher, Catherine Corless, said she found the child
death records in a Catholic orphanage run by nuns in Tuam, County Galway, and
that they suggest a septic tank filled with bones is the mass grave for most or
even all of the children housed at the former home.
Irish Catholic Church leaders said they were not aware that many
children had died at the orphanage or that they were buried there.
They also said that they would contribute to local efforts to mark the
spot with a plaque listing all 796 children’s names.
Regional death records show that most of the children were babies and
toddlers and had died of illness and disease rising from neglect in the
orphanage during the 35 years that it was operational from 1926 to 1961.
The orphanage was inspected by the Irish government in 1944 and
evidence of malnutrition was recorded in 271 of the children, who lived with 61
unwed mothers.
In accordance with Catholic teachings, children who were born out of
wedlock were denied baptism and if they died in such facilities, Christian
burial.
Records show that the septic tank was specifically converted to be used
as the body disposal site for the orphanage.
Locals discovered the body dumping site in 1975, when the cement
covering the tank cracked off. They had thought that the remains were victims of
the mid-19th century famine that ravaged western Ireland's population.
SRK/AS/MHB
Sinn Féin Mountmellick
– Serving The Community
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