In a long piece for the New York Times today titled “The Lost Children of Tuam,” Dan Barry recounts the story of the Mother and Baby Home of Tuam, Ireland. During the first half of the last century, it was where women were sent who bore children out of wedlock. The mothers were generally sent home after a year, but the children stayed, most often in appalling conditions that caused hundreds upon hundreds of unnecessary deaths. And when those children died, they were considered too shameful to be buried with decent folk in the local graveyard. Several years ago, Tuam native Catherine Corless unearthed the true story of the Tuam home after years of painstaking research:

Acting on instinct, she purchased a random sample from the government of 200 death certificates for children who had died at the home. Then, sitting at the Tuam cemetery’s edge in the van of its caretaker, she checked those death certificates against all the burials recorded by hand in two oversize books. Only two children from the home had been buried in the town graveyard.

….In December 2012, Catherine’s essay, titled “The Home,” appeared in the historical journal of Tuam. After providing a general history of the facility, it laid out the results of her research, including the missing burial records and the disused septic tank where two boys had stumbled upon some bones….Her daring essay implicitly raised a provocative question: Had Catholic nuns, working in service of the state, buried the bodies of hundreds of children in the septic system?

I was in Tuam last week. During my last day in Ireland, I rented a car and made a whirlwind tour of the various towns and villages where my Irish ancestors were born. My great-great-grandfather, William Moran, was born in Tuam, and I visited to see if there was any visible trace of the Morans left. Perhaps a Moran’s Grocery or a Moran’s Tavern. But there was nothing that I could see. So I took some pictures and left.

But there were indeed Morans there. Of the 796 children tossed into the septic system because they were born illegitimate, five were Morans:

1930
Patrick Moran 4 months

1933
Bridgid Moran 15 months

1940
Martin Moran 7 weeks

1943
Nora Moran 7 months

1944
Mary P Moran 9 days

But they have a nice cathedral there.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate