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Aspects of the media frenzy that 796 bodies of Irish children were supposedly dumped by nuns in a disused septic tank are lacking hard evidence.
A media storm followed the reported discovery of the remains of hundreds of children from a mother and baby home run by the Bon Secours nuns in Tuam in Ireland from 1925 to 1961.
But writing in the National Catholic Register, correspondent Patrick Kenny notes the boys who found skeletons at the site in 1975 said there was no way there were nearly 800 bodies in the cavity they stumbled into.
Local historian Catherine Corless found records of 796 children who died at the home, with many dying of infectious diseases.
Some died of severe malnutrition.
Corless hypothesised that at least some of the children were buried in a disused septic tank, based on old maps locating a septic tank in the area where the boys found some skeletons.
But the area has never been excavated, and nobody has corroborated her research, Kenny wrote.
Corless also told media she had never used the word “dumped”.
Irish archaeologist Finbar McCormick believes the structure uncovered by the boys is more likely to be a shaft burial vault.
Kenny wrote that the home, while run by the nuns, was actually owned by the local council which also provided funding.
The nuns lobbied for more funds and local ratepayers complained to the council about the cost of running the home, British historian Tim Stanley said.
One third of the deaths at the home happened during World War II, a time of great economic hardship, Kenny noted.
Tuam Catholic diocese has also revealed it has Baptism records for the children at the Tuam home, contrary to media reports that they were denied Baptism and not afforded Christian burials.
Writing on Forbes.com, Eamon Fingleton agreed that the death rate at the Tuam home was disturbingly high, even for the times.
But conditions at the home reflected a shameful effort by the whole of Irish society to ostracise and stigmatise children born out of wedlock, Fingleton concluded.
Among the few people to lift a finger to help these children were the nuns at Tuam, he added.
The Irish government has announced an investigation of Church-operated mother-and-baby homes in the 20th century.
Sources
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