BBC News - Tuam: How hundreds of babies and toddlers came to be buried in an unmarked mass grave - BBC News


www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpwqnwrkd1go


Overseen by the Catholic church until 1960, at least - and Tuam wasn't the only burial site. The practice was replicated throughout the entire country.

Lester Pidgeon wrote:
BBC News - Tuam: How hundreds of babies and toddlers came to be buried in an unmarked mass grave - BBC News


www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpwqnwrkd1go


Overseen by the Catholic church until 1960, at least - and Tuam wasn't the only burial site. The practice was replicated throughout the entire country.

Barney I mean this kindly but we all can read the news; we don't have to come here to receive the link.

What do you think about the subject and issues this story raises?

So sad and deplorable - and very recent! All done with the Catholic church's knowledge and authority.

Many more burial sites are expected to be found - as a child 'out of wedlock' was deemed to be worthy of disposal.

This investigation will extend to many other countries, where the Catholic church held sway - including the UK.




www.aol.co.uk/dig-begins-ireland-believed-hold-040004983.html


Archaeologists, anthropologists and forensic experts aim to identify infants buried at former mother and baby home in Tuam

I remember this original controversy well and it's odd that it's flared up again.

There is no proof there are 100s of bodies in that patch of ground.
Not when the drama first began over a decade ago and certainly not now.

That really is a tabloid type BBC article in it's assumption when it produces nil evidence of it's claim.

Yes some bones were found years ago but absolutely no evidence was found that there were 100s of bodies.

It was a dreadful era in Ireland at the time and the number of infant deaths were terrible but the fact was the Catholic Church was the main depository for orphan infants
and yes 100s died of diseases but no more, in proportion, than babies who were not being cared for by the Church.

The sad truth was..babies died in the 100s because of atrocious conditions and deadly diseases within and outside the Church.

Perhaps now they are excavating the truth may be revealed.

The Catholic records are no doubt correct.

100s died. They must have been buried somewhere.

Obviously as no record of the burials were kept it's certainly a mystery that deserves to be solved.

When this controversy first hit the headlines it went screeching around the world with such certainty- that 100s of bodies were in the Tuam site.

Yet not an iota of proof was presented to justify the belief.

Just as the BBC headline now falsely claims there are 100s of bodies there yet nothing of the kind has been established.

There may well be 100s. There may be 1000s. But just a few bones were found...to date.

Everything else is pure speculation.

This has been the most bizarre case.

There was endless media speculation at the time with government officials stating there would be an archeological investigation of the Tuam site yet the entire thing just fizzled out.

Why? what happened over the past 12 or so years since the story first broke?

Did everyone just go to sleep and forget about it?

Here is an Australian media report on the hysteria of the first reporting on the Tuam claim 11 years ago...my favorite show now and still going..Media Watch

www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/the-t...-behind-tuam/9973480

That Media Watch program makes it's own important mistake as did the world's media.

The woman who started this controversy was in no way a "local historian".

She had zilch training and was a complete amateur who made numerous mistakes such as failing to point out that dozens of the children died in hospitals and doctors signed off on all the death certificates.

Nor did she factor in the fact that some 180,000 Irish infants born to couples (not unwed mothers) during the same era died of the same diseases.

The wretched Irish poverty of the era was horrible.

## The reason I recall all this is because it was around the same time the Jimmy Savile scandal exploded.

In that Media Watch program it mentions an excellent late Oz journalist Mark Colvin at the beginning.

At the same time as the Tuam claims, Colvin announced on his popular afternoon radio program that he was going to interview Dan Davies who knew Jimmy Savile better than anyone and would tell of all the horrors of Savile in his book:
In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile

I rang Colvin and asked him if he could also ask Dan Davies why he described Savile shortly after he died as having "a heart of Gold"

Mark told me to sod off.