Irish archbishop adds voice to those calling for investigation of septic tank burials
Source: Washington Post
Irish archbishop adds voice to those calling for investigation of septic tank burials
By Ruth Gledhill | Religion News Service, Updated: Friday, June 6, 12:53 PM
LONDON The Roman Catholic archbishop of Dublin, regarded as among the most influential church leaders in England and Ireland, has added his voice to those calling for an urgent inquiry into the discovery of nearly 800 babies and children buried in a septic tank at Tuam, a home for unwed mothers in western Ireland.
The scandal is just the latest among many to come to light involving the suffering of children in Irelands history, and it may be among the factors that have contributed to a big fall in church attendance in recent years.
If a public or state inquiry is not established into outstanding issues of concern surrounding the mother-and-baby homes, then it is important that a social history project be undertaken to get an accurate picture of these homes in our countrys history, said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
He also backed calls to excavate the site and set up a monument.
The archbishop is only the latest to respond to the international rage following the revelations. Irelands prime minister, Enda Kenny, has demanded to know the scale of the deaths and whether similar mass graves exist anywhere else in the country.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/irish-archbishop-adds-voice-to-those-calling-for-investigation-of-septic-tank-burials/2014/06/06/6e3c8392-eda3-11e3-8a8a-e17c08f80871_story.html
Scairp
(2,749 posts)But I will not go back there and spend money in that country until they do the right thing by the women and their children or any survivors of the victims of these fucking Magdalene Laundries and orphanages. Every year it seems another horrible detail comes to light and there is no excuse for any of these investigations taking so long. I urge anyone who is thinking of going there soon to reconsider. If you have family there, bring them here, just not on Aer Lingus.
ChairmanAgnostic
(28,017 posts)an indigenous species.
Or was that hypocrite?
me b zola
(19,053 posts)AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)and an investigation was already inevitable.
'Oh shit, better jump on this'
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)Nothing else.
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)The republic was ruled by the church from the beginning and getting them out of control has been a process. I am glad he wants this taken on. I love Ireland. I want to go back again shortly. This is such a great country. My mom's family is from Omagh, County Tyrone in the north.
You have to see it to believe the beauty and the people are so great. This is such a terrible story. It needs investigation and the nuns put in jail if they are responsible. Throwing children away like that is evil.
fedsron2us
(2,863 posts)Hoppy
(3,595 posts)so they don't belong being buried with the rest of us saved people.
Whatsamatteru? You didn't know that?
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)Hoppy
(3,595 posts)the bell again.
Scairp
(2,749 posts)The Irish people are the ones who sent their daughters to these hell holes to be abused and worse, and washed their hands of their own flesh and blood. The people of Ireland must be held accountable for this atrocity and until they are, as I said, I won't spend one thin Euro in Ireland. I wanted to take my daughter to Ireland this year, but that isn't happening now, and it's very upsetting. I haven't been since she was born because she needed me, but she is old enough now, and I feel she would benefit from it. But the people have to admit what they did and do the right thing by any women who survived and are still alive, or their children and grandchildren. I reiterate my request to anyone who reads this to boycott Ireland and anything made within the Republic of Ireland. They have to face what they did and to whatever extent they can, make amends.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)are still living.
A number of young women who children in the 1950s or even late 1940s might still be living.
Scairp
(2,749 posts)The children born outside a marriage in these places were denied baptism. There aren't even birth or death records that are accurate for any of the children who were born or died in those places. This has got to be one of the the most appalling human rights violations in the western world, save the Holocaust, ever committed in the past 100+ years and it's been like pulling teeth to get the various Irish governments over the years to do anything like an investigation. My educated guess is this isn't the only 20th century mass grave containing the bodies of hundreds of abused/unwanted children across Ireland. And they put them in a septic tank, with the shit, because those fucking cold bitches who called themselves "brides of Christ" thought of them as shit. They make me sick.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)It is horrible. I did not know they were refused baptism.
The Magdalenes. They were the worst perpetrators of these crimes against humanity. There was a documentary made that had some actual survivors of those places. It was heartbreaking. One woman was sent there not because she was pregnant but because she accused a cousin of rape and they refused to believe her, so she was branded promiscuous. She was fourteen and her parents sent her to the Magdalenes. If I believed in hell I would wish them an eternity burning in it, the parents and the nuns, but since I don't I know they never had to suffer. That is criminal as well, that they never had to answer for what they did.
happyslug
(14,779 posts)Now the washer women did suffer from problems, those problems were published in a report:
http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/MagdalenRpt2013
The problem is many of the incidents shown in the movie, we have NO record of, In fact many of the women in those laundries report nothing like that happened in the laundries (some report such things in prison and juvenile detention centers but not the Laundries).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalene_Asylum#The_Magdalene_Sisters
Now the Laundries were hard work, but that was expected of people in their teens when the laundries were in business. One of the problems with the laundries was most of the women in the laundries volunteered to be they. Now, some had been given a choice, prison or the laundries, but except for people who had been given that choice, i.e. the chose to go to the laundries, the women in the laundries always had the option of leaving.
Just pointing out, that the movie was a hit job. It relied on the story of several women who disliked being in the laundries but when the above study was done, based on interviews of many survivors of the laundries, those stories did not hold up.
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)with the nuns who did this. they are psychotic people, those nuns.
GeorgeGist
(25,306 posts)that God is a product of mental illness.
Mr. Evil
(2,808 posts)But, of course nothing will happen. The pope may give some speech. And there will be attempts to conveniently sweep it all under a very large rug. Anyone still alive that was connected in any way to these facilities and the horrible things that happened there should be raked over the coals regardless of how old they may be now.
I am so glad I disassociated myself from the catholic church and religion in general early on in my life. To me, religion is the greatest evil ever perpetrated upon the human race. Disgusting!
hue
(4,949 posts)This occurred in French Canada & several other European countries. A documentary was produced in Canada but the Vatican succeeded in scrubbing it from the US market.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Cashel_Orphanage
http://www.freedommag.org/english/press/page07.htm