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An Irishman Abroad

Catherine Corless And The Long Road To Justice For The Victims Of The Tuam Mother And Baby Home

An Irishman Abroad

Jarlath Regan

Society & Culture, News, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture:personal Journals, Personal Journals, Politics

4.8834 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2021

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Few can have failed to see the Tuam Mother And Baby home scandal as it unfolded across the world’s media. It remains one of the most shocking cases in the history of the state. Today Jarlath meets the fearless woman who uncovered this secret and continues to fight to this day for justice for all the victims of the home. Catherine Corless is not a journalist or a trained investigator. As she explains here for the first time, she is a woman who grew up in a very unusual and at times difficult home. A woman who took a night course in local history. A woman who discovered an awful truth that many to this day are unwilling to accept.  Catherine brings us from that night course classroom to the day the story hit the papers and the truly shocking meeting she had with the religious order responsible for the Tuam home. This is the story of a person who refused to bow down to bullies. Her book, Belonging is out now and all royalties will go to the Tír Na Nóg Orphanage. To hear every episode in full and to gain access to the entire back-catalogue of over 500 Irishman Abroad episodes that are not available on iTunes for just the price of a pint every month visit www.patreon.com/irishmanabroad Supplementary research provided by John Meagher. Our charity partner is jigsawonline.ie. In these tricky times, Jigsaw provides a range of resources, advice and care for your people to help them strengthen their mental health and the skills needed to navigate life. Please visit their website and consider making a donation. For updates on future episodes and live shows follow @jarlath on Twitter, visit www.jigser.com or email the show directly on [email protected]. Disclaimer: All materials contained within this podcast are copyright protected. Third party reuse and/or quotation in whole or in part is prohibited unless direct credit and/or hyperlink to the Irishman Abroad podcast is clearly and accurately provided.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I said, I have facts. There's 796 deaths. I have them here.

0:05.8

They're ages of the children, from infants up to three and four years. And I said, they're missing.

0:12.7

Why isn't anybody horrified? Why aren't people coming together and coming to the site?

0:17.7

Why isn't the church ringing me? Why aren't the Bon Secours ringing me? I said there's a cover up here, there has to be.

0:22.6

So we ploughed on anyways and finally then I was able to prove to my best ability

0:28.6

that those children are not buried in the Tune graveyard.

0:32.6

They're not in the local graveyards.

0:34.6

They're not in the county graveyards.

0:36.6

I said, where'd they gone?

0:38.5

You know, I mean, a full year passed with me struggling,

0:42.0

trying to get authorities and the church and the bond support sisters

0:45.8

to get some answers.

0:47.2

But as we know, it was only when the story went nationwide

0:50.9

and worldwide that the powers that B had to step up and say something. It took a year

0:57.1

and a half nearly, struggling to get this out there. When she signed up for an evening class

1:03.3

in local history, Catherine Corliss had no clue where that decision would take her life. The

1:08.7

tutor taught the class to see history all around them and to

1:12.0

dig deeper and ask why. It's from here, this really small beginning, that she would start

1:17.7

to research and write about the tomb mother and baby home in Galway, a place she had passed

1:24.1

as a child every single day, a place in which she would slowly uncover a dark

1:30.9

secret that had been kept for many, many years. The bodies of 796 babies buried together

1:38.9

in a mass grave that appeared to be a sewage tank. Catherine has made finding out who these children were,

...

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