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LAST FRIDAY, THE Department of Children and Youth Affairs published the report of a consultation process on the courses of action available to the government in relation to the site of the former Mother and Baby Home at Tuam.
At best, this report is, as my mother, Catherine Corless, calls it, “fluff”. It is also a sinister and elaborate exercise in amplifying a line of dissent. The whole idea of this consultation was an insult from the start, and its process and findings are a sham.
Ironically, that word “sham” is slang for a person from Tuam, the very people this report purports to speak for. But it doesn’t. Locals are not so polarised as this report insists.
Facilitators dug deep
It looks like the consultation facilitators dug deep to find resistance to full excavation, which they seemed to think would be from people closest the site.
In the consultation process, the turnout for the local residents closed session seemed not to be enough: they ran a s econd day. Which had lower turnout. Then they went door to door in Dublin Road estate. Why?
And why were local residents even isolated as a target group? One of them said it should not be up to them at all.
At the “Dialogue with Former Residents and Relatives of Former Residents of Tuam Mother and Baby Home and Supporters” meeting, all 29 in attendance voted for full excavation of the total available area.
A few dissenters
We know there are a few dissenters. Yes, some make themselves plain to my mother, whom she meets with grace; and truth be told, before all this came out in 2014, we feared local criticism would be much worse.
Yet people turned up in droves for the candlelit vigil at the site in 2016. And in March 2017, a large group of local residents held a gathering at the site with candles and poetry and music and a big bouquet of flowers for Mam, which she laid on the burial area.
My impression is that this report has sought to amplify the few – so that a narrative of dissent, based on a misrepresentative report, be publicised. The process and the report fit an insidious culture of downplaying the blindingly obvious need for immediate full excavation.
Disconcerting
My thoughts turn to my fellow archaeologists and their bravery at undertaking a dig like this. I wonder if they had trauma training or decompression support for what they saw. This should absolutely be a factor for when full excavation does go ahead.
I’ve dug human remains myself. It can be weird and disconcerting but you get caught up in the work of the day and get on with it. There’s a moment of pause and respect when it comes time to “lift” them. And it’s always more emotional if it’s a child.
Of course Tuam is very different. Where is the full picture of what my fellow archaeologists actually saw in Tuam?
Why are we having at best a fluff and at worst a manufactured exercise in amplifying the most offensive “option” as to how to deal with Tuam, which is to suggest that the concealed dead be left there?
Excavate the site
Why downplay in this way a situation where at least ten women, and hundreds of babies and children up to about the age of three mostly, with more up to the age of 9, are missing, either because they are trafficked or because they are dead and concealed in a sewage tank?
There was only ever one thing to do: excavate the site and DNA test the remains without delay.
Adrienne Corless is a blogger, yoga teacher, and archaeologist. She is a mother of three and is the founder of Yoga Bloom, a hub for pregnant women and new mothers in rural Wexford.
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Not a word in the article to say why the bakery is “historic”. Did oul Mr. Brennan make his first sliced pan there or something? Old doesn’t automatically mean historic.
@John Considine: Bread White bread!!!!!! Historical…… or maybe Dev’s Cousin’s friend walked passed there and seen his reflection in the windows. Who knows. They tell us nothing unless it’s got something in it for them.
@John Considine: it’s a Charles Herbert Ashworth building.
@John Considine: Kennedys bread fed us all for years, loved the crusty outer slices. Ate them on the way home from the shops!
Will the pillar stones at the gateways be kept in place, to preserve the history of the horse drawn carts, that wore away the entrances?
The councillors are great. “Don’t build that type of development “ “ don’t build over four floors” pathetic !
@Shane Murphy: this is a seven-story development.
Obviously plenty of ‘ bread’ involved and to be made there.. the perfect cover…
It is ashame government can’t purchase these buildings, redevelop them into student accommodation and then rent them out at affordable prices, all the while ensuring the tax payer a small return or break even on the cost. This will be another student accommodation for the wealthy foreign students.
@Charles McGuire: And owned & managed from some off shore corporation to avoid local taxation.
All rented housing needs to be state controlled at affordable rents, to moderate the cost of purchase housing. The State must operate on behalf of its people, not on behalf of the market, which is manipulated for profit, mainly by offshore tax avoidance schemes.
This is more likely going to be filled by international students who can afford to pay the high rent, not Irish students. Again, another reason for people to land in to Dublin and stretch the rental sector even further. Those living in the country already and paying rent are being completely ignored by the government which pursues a growth at all costs philosophy.
Enough is enough main party’s hand there arses in euro an locals. Won’t be long before a split when spice boy is shown the door
@Tommy D: and in English that means….
What exactly?
Makes sense as we look to profit from a targeting of foreign students, expect fees to jump in the coming years too. Money to be made lads!
Very hard to find a decent loaf of bread these days.
All frozen or possessed cardboard these days.
Oversupply will mean reduced rents or empty buildings !
Sad to read Ireland suffering the same student housing blight as many University towns in England. In the UK’s case it was a tax dodge introduced by George Osborne that did it. There are Student building firms on top of this who are registered overseas for tax purposes too, so it’s lose-lose all round. All the while, (empty) shop doorways are filled with the homeless. The possibility of even a place to rent just a dream.
About time!!!This type of student housing works all over the world. Perfect for first-year students. And will free up a lot of housing in all college towns and cities.
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