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Explainer: What is happening with the possible mass grave of children in Tuam?

We look at how the story has unfolded, and the many, many questions that still remain.

Updated 11.14am

IN THE SPACE of two weeks, the story about a mass grave at a former mother and baby home in Galway has grown from something that was just talked about locally in Tuam to a worldwide news story.

The oh-so-gradual unfolding of the story, beginning in the 1970s with the discovery of multiple skeletons, seemed to take people by surprise. After breaking in the media almost a fortnight ago, it took more than a week before any politician made a comment about it, and it was days before national mainstream outlets covered it.

Here, we look at how the story has unfolded, and all of the many, many questions that still remain.

What is the home at the centre of the controversy? 

the-home Old Tuam Society Old Tuam Society

From 1925 until 1961, an order of nuns calls the Bon Secours Sisters ran an institution at this building in Tuam in Co Galway.

The institution was called St Mary’s but was known locally as The Home. Unmarried women in the area who became pregnant were sent there to give birth away from their families, as at the time, having a so-called ‘illegitimate’ child was regarded as shameful.

The babies were then left in the orphanage to be raised by the nuns. Some of them were put up for adoption  - which, some contend, was done without the consent of the parents - while some remained in the care of the nuns.

Some of the poorer women who gave birth were forced to work for the nuns in the institution after they had their child as a way to pay for the service which had been provided to them.

The Home was one of many of its type in Ireland at the time: a social service run by a Catholic religious order which imposed the harsh cultural mores of the time and focused on imposing penance and punishment for what the women had done.

Why is it in the spotlight now? It’s been closed for more than 50 years? 

Simply put, the story spans a long period of time but has only gotten media attention in recent weeks.

Let’s start with the event at the centre of the story: In 1975, fourteen years after The Home had closed down, two young boys called Frannie Hopkins and Barry Sweeney were playing in a field where the building had once stood.

Probe into mother and baby homes Niall Carson / PA Wire Niall Carson / PA Wire / PA Wire

The boys discovered some concrete slabs loosely covering a hollow. They moved the concrete and discovered a hole which, Frannie Hopkins has described as being “full of skeletons… of children”.

In a recent interview, Frannie said that his parents told him that a local priest had said a mass at the site and the grave was then covered over again. There was no investigation of any kind into who was buried there and what had happened to them.

Local people knew that the area had served as some kind of graveyard for children in The Home, and a local couple began to take care of it, erecting a grotto in the corner and maintaining it.

Probe into mother and baby homes Niall Carson / PA Wire Niall Carson / PA Wire / PA Wire

And so why is it making the news now? 

A committee of local historians began a campaign to raise money for a proper memorial at the site, which led one of them, Catherine Corless to do more research on who exactly was buried there.

As the fundraising appeal began, the story appeared in two local newspapers – the Tuam Herald and the Connacht Tribune – last October.

Probe into mother and baby homes Catherine Corless Niall Carson / PA Wire Niall Carson / PA Wire / PA Wire

However it only really began to gain attention when The Irish Mail on Sunday ran it as a front page story on Sunday 25 May, focusing on the mass grave rather than the fundraising appeal.

The paper ran an interview with Catherine Corless in which she detailed her work and research methods.

What did Catherine Corless find? 

It took a long time, but Catherine Corless methodically researched what happened to children who died there.

She requested the death certificates for all of the children who died at The Home during its 36 years and, after being passed from office to office, was given a list of 796 children from the State agency who kept the records.

cause of death Screengrab Screengrab

“Eventually I had to contact the registry office in Galway,” she told IrishCentral.

A week later [my contact there] got back to me and said ‘do you really want all of these deaths?’ I said I do. She told me I would be charged for each record. Then she asked me did I realise the enormity of the numbers of deaths there?

The children ranged from newborns up to the age of nine years old and the records show they died from a variety of illnesses.

Catherine Corless then began to cross-reference the list to see if any of the children were buried in local cemeteries. A Galway County Council archivist told her that none of the names appeared in any nearby cemetery.

Catherine managed to get a map of The Home back from when it was a workhouse in the late 19th and early 20th century. By overlaying a map of the site as it looks today, she discovered that the place where the bones were discovered by the two boys in 1975 correlated exactly with where a sewage tank had been located during the building’s workhouse days. The tank had been put out of use in the 1930s when it stopped working.

Map Screengrab Screengrab

As a result, Catherine concluded that the 796 children were likely to have been buried at the site on the grounds of The Home.

Is there any kind of gravestone to mark this? 

No. From the evidence presented by Catherine Corless and Frannie Hopkins, it would seem that the children was placed into the ground, that coffins were not used to bury them, and that there was no gravestone.

So 796 children definitely died at The Home – we know that because there are State records. But how do we know that they were buried in the former sewage tank? 

We don’t. The only record of the skeletons being seen was in 1975 when the two boys discovered them. The skeletons were not counted and the area has not been dug up since.

Tuam mother and baby home infant death Laura Hutton / Photocall Ireland Laura Hutton / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

However, Catherine Corless says the evidence points to only one answer. “Where would they be if they’re not in that pit? Have they just vanished into thin air?”

Were some children at Mother and Baby Homes used for medical research? 

This is a contentious issue. There was some evidence that the bodies of some children from Mother and Baby Homes were given to anatomy departments in Irish universities for medical research. A Prime Time documentary from three years ago covered this issue.

If this did happen – and there’s no evidence either way as of yet – then it could explain what happened to some of the 796 children.

How did the children die? Were they killed? Poorly treated? Died naturally? 

Some of the certificates Catherine Corless received showed the cause of death for the children mainly involved illnesses – such as measles and gastroenteritis which spread quickly in the cramped conditions – or malnutrition.

Boqm8oGCcAAEkRm Children at The Home in 1924 Connaught Tribune / @Limerick 1914 Connaught Tribune / @Limerick 1914 / @Limerick 1914

What about the reports of medical trials carried out on the children? 

A researcher at UCC has found evidence that more than 3,000 children in 24 residential institutions were subjected to experimental vaccine trials in the 1930s. Historian Michael Dwyer said no record of the trials can be found in Government files from the time, but  that the details instead were published in medical journals. 

“This suggests that vaccine trials would not have been acceptable to government, municipal authorities or the general public,” he said.

However the fact that reports of these trials were published in the most prestigious medical journals suggest that this type of human experimentation was largely accepted by medical practitioners and facilitated by authorities in charge of children’s residential institutions.

Given the seriousness of the issue,  Government Minister Kathleen Lynch has said that the vaccine trials should form part of any forthcoming inquiry.

Was the mortality rate really that much higher at The Home than for other children? 

An average of 22 children died every year at The Home, meaning one died every 2.3 weeks on average. This rate is significantly higher than Ireland’s infant mortality rates at the time.

A Dáil debate in 1934 noted that one in three children who were born outside of marriage died within one year of their birth – a rate which was about five times higher than for other children.

“From the abnormally high death rate amongst this class of children one must come to the conclusion that they are not looked after with the same care and attention as that given to ordinary children,” Fianna Fáil TD Dr Conn Ward told the Dáil.

Probe into mother and baby homes Members of the Tuam Home Graveyard Committee Niall Carson / PA Wire Niall Carson / PA Wire / PA Wire

What do the nuns involved have to say? 

The Bon Secours nuns released a statement through a PR company on Thursday.

In it, they said that they were “shocked and deeply saddened” about the reports, and said that they would co-operate with plans for a memorial. They stressed that the records were all handed over to the local authority – now within the HSE – when The Home closed in 1961.

The statement was notable in that it did not confirm or deny the existence of the mass grave – in fact, it didn’t give any detail at all about it.

Did the State know about it? 

The excellent researcher behind the @Limerick1914 Twitter account found contemporaneous reports that the Bon Secours nuns were paid £2,800 per year by the State in 1927 to look after the mothers and children in The Home.

The children also attended local schools, where they were segregated from other students, and would have been treated by local medical staff.

So is there a garda investigation? 

Good question. The Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald has ordered a report from An Garda Síochána about how much information it has about the mass grave allegation.

So that’s a good first step, isn’t it? 

Some would say that the Minister had to step in. For more than one week, the gardaí had repeatedly said that there was nothing for them to investigate.

CNN summed up the confusion well, quoting a garda press officer who said there was nothing to suggest any impropriety.

The repeated we-know-nothing stance by the gardaí is especially strange given that the original article in the Irish Mail on Sunday reported that the family of one of the children who died at the home had already reported it to the gardaí.

When a reporter from TheJournal.ie asked them last week about this, the gardaí simply never responded.

It is possible that the gardaí were confused by this excavation of a site near The Home which found the bodies of 48 famine victims who had been buried there.

So is there an inquiry? An investigation?

The newly-appointed Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan has said that a number of Government departments are carrying out a review to work out how best to investigate the matter.

Dail Returns From Summer Holidays Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

It is most likely that this will lead to a statutory inquiry into Tuam, and possibly into other Mother and Baby homes.

Is there any chance that this could be a one-off? 

No. UCD historian Lindsey Earner-Byrne who has researched this area extensively has said that Tuam was not exceptional.

“That 800 number will be replicated, and [be] higher in other homes,” she said on RTE.

She said she was surprised by the mass grave but not by the numbers, noting that all the mother-and-baby homes shared the common trait of very high infant mortality rates, “significantly higher than the mortality rates for ‘legitimate’ babies”.

In her book, she noted the death rates at some of these unmarried mother’s homes:

  • Bessboro home in Cork had an infant mortality rate of 61 per cent in 1943
  • Shan Ross Abbey in Roscrea had a rate of 35 per cent in the same year
  • The Home in Tuam had a rate of 35 per cent in the same year

What happened to The Home? 

When the home closed in 1961, many of the children were moved to industrial schools around the country.

The building itself was bulldozed and a housing estate now stands in its place.

Tuam mother and baby home infant death Local author JP Rodgers, who lived at the home until he was fostered at the age of 6, at the grotto. Laura Hutton / Photocall Ireland Laura Hutton / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Meanwhile, the fundraising efforts are continuing by the committee of local historians. Speaking to TheJournal.ie last week, Catherine Corless said she was surprised how long it had taken for people to talk about the discovery.

“People don’t seem shocked, I don’t understand,” she said.

“If two children were discovered in an unmarked grave, the news would be everywhere. We have almost 800 here”.

This article was originally published at 8.15am on Saturday 7 June. 

Read: Amnesty says Tuam investigation must be independent, effective and transparent >

Read: Multiple government departments to deal with ‘deeply disturbing revelations’ of child burials > 

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    Mute Hank Schrader
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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:47 PM

    Few 65 inch screens in Power City and LED bulbs obviously don’t cut it for RTE.. Got to go the procurement route and pay way over the odds and use up few hundred man hours reviewing tenders to ensure everything is spelt correctly..

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    Mute Fake Account
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:12 PM

    @Hank Schrader: *spellt

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    Mute David Huston
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:18 PM

    If only they would do a makeover on their reporting/spin the feed the sheep.

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    Mute dick dastardly
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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:54 PM

    1.7 million for a few studio lights and a desk!!!where do I sign for this tender

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    Mute Quentin Moriarty
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    Jun 4th 2018, 5:37 PM

    @dick dastardly: let’s go back to the simple newsroom from the days of Don Cockburn n Charles Mitchell n save that money .
    A time when people respected the presenters

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    Mute Charliegrl80
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    Jun 4th 2018, 10:41 PM

    @Quentin Moriarty: they were both wonderful news presenters

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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:51 PM

    No wonder the head of RTE wanted to increase the licence fee.

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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:53 PM

    Unbelievable. The only thing they should change is the loudness of the introduction music. Complete waste of money viewers don’t need a 2 million view when watching the news. Another reason to cut the license fee sooner rather than later.

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    Mute Sean
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    Jun 4th 2018, 4:10 PM

    @6ljJQRRU: I watch RTE news most nights and what drives me mental is that little RTE logo on the bottom of the screen where a blue bar keeps moving slowly across and then it gets to the end. And repeats. And repeats. Honestly I find it hard to concentrate on the news item. Why have a moving logo? It just distracts attention. Reminds me of the loading icon on the Windows computers.

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    Mute goon4life
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    Jun 4th 2018, 5:36 PM

    @Sean: why do you watch the rte news!?

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Jun 4th 2018, 6:02 PM

    @Sean: damn Sean, don’t watch often enough to have noticed, now you told me it’ll start bugging me too.

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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:23 PM

    Should start with sixone presenters

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    Jun 4th 2018, 7:02 PM

    @Inanimate Carbon Rod: That’s just nasty.

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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:07 PM

    Thought they were practically bankrupt….. That’s why they sold off a portion of Montrose

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    Mute leartius
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:46 PM

    @Sean Leonard: 107.5 million for just under nine acres of land, property that was bought with taxpayer funds. Of course the real news story is why RTE won’t release how much money is generated by phone in competitions. That information is considered ‘commercially sensitive’ and Denis Naughten is too busy handing out insider information to his rugby buddies to press this matter in the public interest. It make the €19.7-million deficit look suspect. A ruse to increase the licence fee.

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    Mute Siobhán Ni Mhurchú
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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:49 PM

    Ah they’re just copying Tv3 . .

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Jun 4th 2018, 6:04 PM

    @Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: at nearly 2mil I doubt it.

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    Mute Trevor Hayden
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:24 PM

    I thought they were struggling financially?
    Good ole gullible taxpayer to the rescue, yet again.

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    Mute Chewey Bacca
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:34 PM

    Why do they need a physical set when a virtual one will do the job for next to nothing ?
    Here’s a lady walking around a set with stairs which is a green room in reality.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uu8aLBvkeM

    Eurosport 2018 olympics coverage – a bit of plasterboard and green paint
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceddbBnl95s
    The software will cost a few bob but they will spend that on the new jingle intro anyway – The emperor has no clothes.

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    Mute Patrick J. O'Rourke
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    Jun 4th 2018, 2:41 PM

    @Chewey Bacca: very true. Its very much the norm in broadcast stations elsewhere. Of course the makeover doesn’t cost as much when needed. When all is said and done whatever route they take the money will be spent outside of the country.

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    Mute Chris Hop
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:38 PM

    Still be fake news and propaganda liberal lies no matter what

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    Mute Ted Murray
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    Jun 4th 2018, 2:26 PM

    @Chris Hop: ___ Fake off..

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    Jun 4th 2018, 9:44 PM

    @Chris Hop: Bang on!

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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:54 PM

    “robotic camera” – just replace them all with robots at this stage

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    Jun 4th 2018, 2:08 PM

    Who watches telly news these days? We get the news online when we want it. This is simply pi$$ing away more taxpayer’s hard earned income. Sooner this anachronism is disbanded, and those RTE wasters turfed out, the better.

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    Mute Jerry Hurley
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    Jun 4th 2018, 5:24 PM

    @Dance Cuts: that is very true. i haven’t watched RTE news in years… Radio by day and internet at night .

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    Mute Joe Phillips
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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:50 PM

    ‘Makeover’ is a noun, Darragh. You need to separate ‘make’ and ‘over’ to use it as a verb. Honestly, this is very basic stuff

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    Mute Art Smith
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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:52 PM

    @Joe Phillips: Fair play, Joe. You are a lifesaver. What would we do without you?

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    Mute Joe Phillips
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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:54 PM

    @Art Smith: p

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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:58 PM

    Woops… I was gonna say ‘probably carry on in blissful ignorance’ but I’ve lost the upper hand with that prematurely posted ‘p’.

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    Mute Mark kelly
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:01 PM

    @Joe Phillips: lol they changed it

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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:03 PM

    @Mark kelly: of course they did. A word of thanks from Darragh would’ve been nice

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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:06 PM

    @Joe Phillips: Virtue is its own reward.

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    Mute Ted Murray
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:08 PM

    @Mark kelly: __ They just gave it a “makeover”.

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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:16 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: Fair point, Brendan! I guess I’ve learnt something here today too.

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    Mute WCS
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:43 PM

    @Ted Murray: Or as they would have said, in the absence of our lifesaver Joe, they’ve madeover it

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    Mute Joe Phillips
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    Jun 4th 2018, 2:36 PM

    @WCS: love it

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    Mute Siobhan Farragher
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    Jun 4th 2018, 4:51 PM

    @Joe Phillips: You think journalists write headlines? Honestly, Joe. This is very basic stuff…

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    Mute Keith Fay
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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:52 PM

    I really don’t care

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    Mute Joseph Dempsey
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:39 PM

    Perhaps they might overhaul the Dreadful Six one, it’s an utter train wreck with only keelan Shanley holding it together, her co presenter is akin to an annoying younger cousin who speaks when she’s told too. It’s a truly awful pairing

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    Mute Ted Murray
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:06 PM

    Can’t they just dig out the old Bosco set?

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    Jun 4th 2018, 2:23 PM

    Thought they were skint

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    Jun 4th 2018, 2:58 PM

    Good to see they have the money for this while Dee is whining that they need more money.

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    Mute Anthony John Cotter
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:07 PM

    Very much the gold standard in news reporting though that sounds a lot for a makeover, IKEA have grand gear.

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    Mute wattsed
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    Jun 4th 2018, 3:06 PM

    Their coverage is irrelevant, presentation mediocre. And do they really need expensive foreign correspondents in this era of less financially burdened and more incisive news networks freely available ?
    They’re getting this money from Varadkar, the previous SCU budget.

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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Jun 4th 2018, 3:00 PM

    So it’s costing €1.7m for dresses for Keelin Shanley and Caitríona Perry

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    Mute Charlotte Bolger
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    Jun 4th 2018, 4:03 PM

    One newscaster is enough for a (supposedly) cash strapped organisation.

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    Mute Mr Breen
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    Jun 4th 2018, 3:01 PM

    More waste of money , desk, chair cam-recorder and video links is all you need €500 tops

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    Mute The Supreme Being
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    Jun 4th 2018, 2:07 PM

    Bring back Dobbo to the Six One. That’s all you need- the man is a LEDGE!!

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    Jun 4th 2018, 2:17 PM

    @The Supreme Being: He,s a whah???.

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    Jun 4th 2018, 4:13 PM

    Two new women presenters and they want a studio makeover ( runs and hides)

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    Mute Greg Blake
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    Jun 4th 2018, 6:21 PM

    @ed w: put that there, .. no there .. no there … wait, the wall colour’s wrong .. where’s the colour chart .. now that thing doesn’t match .. let’s go furniture shopping … now put there .. no there .. not sure about the room colour now, where’s the colour chart? How come you never have an interest in doing up the house .. I have to think of everything. Runs for deeper cover.

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    Mute Jack McGready
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    Jun 4th 2018, 1:01 PM

    Hopefully it will improve the news.

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    Mute Jack McGready
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    Jun 4th 2018, 9:03 PM

    ..

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    Mute Brendan O'Brien
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    Jun 4th 2018, 12:59 PM

    [Insert disgruntled comment]

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    Mute DeFonz
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    Jun 4th 2018, 5:06 PM

    @Brendan O’Brien: [RTE,Apoplexy..the one subject that unites all Journal commentators]

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    Mute Michael Fehily
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    Jun 4th 2018, 7:42 PM

    RTE can “revamp” their studio all they like . If they don’t change their parochial bias in their news reporting, and report on global affairs , then they’ll remain they joke that they always are.

    18
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    Mute James Mc Loughlin
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    Jun 4th 2018, 6:36 PM

    And there we were told that they had no money,an upgrade of the muck they are putting out,with repeats,of talk shows every weekend,the same old tripe,news readers with out squeaky voices for a start,when the news comes on now at six ,Iturn over to the six o clock show on tv 3,at least there you can have a laugh

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    Mute Suedehead
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    Jun 4th 2018, 7:12 PM

    For a start it doesn’t need to be an hour long .

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    Mute Tony Stack
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    Jun 4th 2018, 2:37 PM

    Get rid of the gongs

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    Mute Alan
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    Jun 4th 2018, 9:03 PM

    I have no time for RTÉ but 1.7M over 10 years is €252 per news bulletin. And this includes new robotic camera system. Looks like good value to me witch is a change for RTE.

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    Mute Adam Ripon
    Favourite Adam Ripon
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    Jun 4th 2018, 7:43 PM

    RTE, are you Looking for a Newsroom Computer System (NRCS) drop me an email a.kennedy@octopus-news.com

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    Mute William Kelly
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    Jun 5th 2018, 6:24 AM

    Robotic tv cameras for robotic news coverage. Sounds appropriate, since most of the news is repeated from other news sources.

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Jun 5th 2018, 12:30 PM

    Finally getting robotic cameras?? I was using them in America in 1995. Good to see we are only 23 years behind the yanks. Not sure how well three jobs going down to one person will be accepted in Montrose.

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    Mute Imelda Murphy
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    Jun 5th 2018, 8:10 AM

    Whatever they do NO GLASS DESK.

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    Mute James Mc Loughlin
    Favourite James Mc Loughlin
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    Jun 6th 2018, 5:01 PM

    They seem to have a lot of money to play around with..so for get about increasing the TV licence ,Since the new head took over she seems to be on a spending spree,,what happened to all the money they got from selling off some of the land,,

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