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The grounds where an unmarked mass grave containing the remains of nearly 800 infants in Tuam Co Galway Rollingnews.ie

Mother and Baby Homes commission submits report on burial of those who died in institutions

The report has been submitted to Minister for Children Katherine Zappone.

THE FIFTH INTERIM report by the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes will focus on burial arrangements of those who died while living in them.

The report, which has been submitted to Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, includes technical reports prepared as part of the commission’s investigation into the Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

The investigation into the home, which was run by the Bon Secours nuns as a home for unmarried mothers from 1925 until 1961, announced in March 2017 that it had uncovered a significant amount of human remains at the site,

A decision to carry out a full forensic examination of the site was announced last October.

It follows an investigation into the home by local historian Catherine Corless, who cross-referenced death certifications from the home with local burials, and found that 796 children who died at the home were not given an official burial.

The Minister will consider the findings of the latest report and consult the Attorney General, before she seeks Government approval to publish the report as quickly as possible.

In a statement, a spokesman said that the “dignity and memory of those who died in these institutions” would be central to the Minister’s approach, and that she was sensitive to the expectations of families for an early publication date.

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    Mute AJ McLaughlin
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    Mar 16th 2019, 5:23 PM

    Sorry, but a full exhumation was announced last October, has this not commenced yet?

    And why isn’t this a criminal investigation run by Gardaí?

    Is this just another government trying to buy time. A 5th intetm report, 5th of how many more?

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Mar 16th 2019, 5:31 PM

    @AJ McLaughlin: I understand that this needs to be dealt with but it is a very, very sensitive issue.

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    Mute AJ McLaughlin
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    Mar 16th 2019, 5:38 PM

    @Dave O’Keeffe: I fail to understand what you mean. Yes it is sensitive but which of my questions mean it won’t be dealt with, and dealt with sensitivity? It is 5 months on since the exhumation was announced, and nothing. The only people this is being sensitive to are those whom were invloved in committing these crimes and those whom covered them up.

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    Mute Dermot Foley
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    Mar 16th 2019, 5:41 PM

    @Dave O’Keeffe: not as sensitive as the criminals who are still at large. It’s an absolute joke that there has been no sign of any prosecutions whatsoever. The government is doing It’s best to allow as many to die off as possible without anyone being held responsible.

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    Mute Dave O'Keeffe
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    Mar 16th 2019, 6:09 PM

    @AJ McLaughlin: it’s excavation, not exhumation and it is currently not legal to do it. These reports are to inform legislation which will allow for the excavation. Doing it wrong and just plough g ahead would be the biggest favour those responsible could ever have done for them.

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    Mute Niall Ó Cofaigh
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    Mar 16th 2019, 6:15 PM

    @AJ McLaughlin: which crimes ??? There may have been a lot wrong by today’s standards but I am not sure that any crime was proven. The births were registered, the deaths were registered but I am not sure that there was a legal requirement to bury those in a grave yard – and remember the home was set up at the request of and paid for by the state – so, in many ways the entire population who did nothing about this and other homes all played their part, along with church and state, in allowing this to happen – hence the question “which crimes?”

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    Mute Niall Ó Cofaigh
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    Mar 16th 2019, 6:17 PM

    @Dermot Foley: prosecuted for what? Sad and all with everything that happened I am curious as to what crime was committed?

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    Mute Matt Connolly
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    Mar 16th 2019, 6:18 PM

    @Dermot Foley: I’m not sure there’s a criminal offence to actually charge anyone with.

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    Mute AJ McLaughlin
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    Mar 16th 2019, 6:48 PM

    @Niall Ó Cofaigh: Ah, go say a decade of the rosary, and it will all be grand. I almost feel sorry for deniers like you but no. Maybe read the statements, from the women in these “homes”, explaining their pain and suffering. Crimes were committed, including murder. You will carry your lies with you to your grave.

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    Mute Seamus Mac
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    Mar 16th 2019, 7:35 PM

    @AJ McLaughlin: these women had nowhere else to go unfortunately. The church was tasked with looking after the people the state failed. Shocking.

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    Mute sean o'dhubhghaill
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    Mar 16th 2019, 8:43 PM

    @AJ McLaughlin: The women in these ‘homes’ had already been thrown out of other ‘homes!.

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    Mute Matt Connolly
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    Mar 16th 2019, 9:00 PM

    @AJ McLaughlin: denying nothing. To be charged with something there has to be a piece of legislation laying out what the criminal offence is.

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    Mute Niall Ó Cofaigh
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    Mar 16th 2019, 9:21 PM

    @AJ McLaughlin: I asked what crimes and you replied, thank you. Whether murder can ever be proven is another issue. However accusing me of being a denier is a total incorrect assumption on your part as both my mother and myself have 1st hand experience of mother and baby homes and I know the pain she suffered never knowing what happened to her son taken from her when a few weeks old. No amount of rosaries, or exhumations or investigations or even prosecutions with remove the pain she felt every day and took to her grave not knowing what had happened to her son. So I have have to ask why you think I am a denier and what “lies” you are saying I will take to my grave?

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    Mute ÓDuibhír Abú
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    Mar 16th 2019, 11:17 PM

    @Matt Connolly: It’s a Crime to put a human being in the Ground other than an Official Grave Yard. People can’t just go ‘Dumping ‘ Bodies all over the place, Like these religious sister have, someone will know what ‘Law’ was broken. There is a place for the dead and it’s not in a ‘Septic Tank’, at any rate ‘Moral’ Law has been broken, then had these Religious any ‘Morals’.!!

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    Mute Colette Kearns
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    Mar 16th 2019, 11:21 PM

    @Niall Ó Cofaigh: You seem to be completely in the dark about the whole thing, go & do some research & then maybe you can come back with a sensible comment!

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    Mute Dermot Foley
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    Mar 18th 2019, 12:18 AM

    @Niall Ó Cofaigh: take your head out of your hole.

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    Mute James Moore
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    Mar 16th 2019, 5:41 PM

    It doesn’t surprise me the way religious orders treated their deceased children considering they inflicted persistent cruelty on the children that were in their care, most of these children are now on old age state pension and cruelty on these unfortunate people are still being inflicted by the way they are being treated on a very uncaring manner by their local county council when they go to look for housing support who are we suppose to go to in getting help in this matter.

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    Mute Dermot Foley
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    Mar 16th 2019, 5:45 PM

    @James Moore: what? Try punctuation. It helps to know when one sentence ends and one begins.

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    Mute Dave Doyle
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    Mar 16th 2019, 6:55 PM

    This report will be buried for 75 years, just like the other reports. Keep the unaccountability going.

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    Mute Paul J. Redmond
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    Mar 16th 2019, 5:58 PM

    And the stalling starts now

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    Mute David Morris
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    Mar 17th 2019, 10:42 PM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNlQnXQ8on4&t=227s – Catherine Corless admits Tuam unmarked mass grave originally had gravestones before being bulldozed for new housing estate

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    Mute David Morris
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    Mar 17th 2019, 10:49 PM

    These women did more, for no gain, in times of unbelievable poverty, they and the mothers were the ones holding the babies as they watched their lives slip away with the plagues of the times and malnourishment that took these little ones e.g. Typhoid, Diphtheria, Polio, T.B.,Pneumonia, Diarrhoea, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Hepatitis , Measles, Mumps, whooping cough, Rotavirus, Rubella and Tetanus, the Spanish Flu pandemic etc. as certified on their doctors death certs, with higher death rates because so many sick and undernourished children were packed into close proximity, same as the Tenements in the cities. Putrid underground drinking water, unpasteurized milk, poor sanitation, rampant diseases, civil war, world wars (2), depressions, general strikes, rationing etc. and the lack of funding (Sound Familiar?)

    All this despite reams of letters to the authorities for more help. Today’s people cannot even begin to imagine for thousands of pregnant girls and their babies than any of these well paid t.d.s or campaigners, or keyboard warriors ever did, as they try to read history BACKWARDS.!

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Mar 19th 2019, 11:38 AM

    @David Morris: If this isn’t proof that religion poisons the mind I don’t know what is.

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    Mute John Lynch
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    Sep 1st 2019, 6:26 AM

    @Rob Cahill:
    Minds are poisoned with more than religion. LIke desire for notoriety, a desire to stir animosity.

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    Mute David Morris
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    Mar 17th 2019, 10:43 PM

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2014/06/09/that-story-about-irish-babies-in-a-septic-tank-is-a-media-hoax/#16f8b62d3637 Why That Story About Irish Babies “Dumped In A Septic Tank” Is A Hoax
    “ THE IMAGE OF NUNS CONSCIOUSLY DUMPING BABIES IN A SEPTIC TANK IS ONE OF THE MOST IRRESPONSIBLE PRESS HOAXES OF MODERN TIMES.”
    Eamonn Fingleton – former editor for Forbes and the Financial Times
    The only factual story so far ‘Bones found in a Graveyard’….. Well who would have thought?

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    Mute David Morris
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    Mar 17th 2019, 10:45 PM

    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/little-angels-plot-50-000-burials-1.1013017 there are over 40,000 babies in ‘unmarked mass graves’ with 16 – 20 babies in each grave,buried here in a state cemetery in Dublin most from local birthing institutions – WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE

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