The documented, yet ignored horrors of Ireland's baby homes.

Adoption Rights Alliance Co-Founder, Susan Lohan said that the Tuam scandal is not isolated and that mother-and-baby homes in Ireland were known to have high mortality rates.

In his 1989 book To Cure and To Care — Memoirs of a Chief Medical Officer, former Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health James Deeny spoke of his concerns at the inordinately high child death rates at Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork.

He estimated that 100 out of 180 babies born at the home for unmarried mothers, run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, died in one year.

“Dr Deeny was so concerned that he travelled to Cork to visit the home,” said Ms Lohan. “Initially he couldn’t see any reason for the high death rate but then asked one of the nuns if he could look at the babies’ nappies.

“When the nappies were opened, it emerged the babies and toddlers were sitting in putrefying diarrhoea that was being ignored and the nuns wanted it all covered up.”

Ms Lohan said it is widely believed that many children who died in the homes had health and disability needs that were not addressed, or suffered generalised neglect.


http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/call-for-mother-and-baby-home-inquiry-270865.html