Nuns accept failure to respect dignity of women and children in Mother and Baby Homes

Catherine Corless, pictured beside a grotto in the grounds of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home. Picture: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie

"We did not live up to our Christianity when running the home and failed to respect the inherent dignity of the women and children who came to the home."

These are the words of the nuns who ran St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam in an apology released in the aftermath of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission Report.

Tuam-based historian Catherine Corless, who helped to bring the scandal of that institution to light, said the initial response from survivors to the report has been one of disappointment.

Survivors have said the report "skimmed over" the issue of illegal adoptions.

This morning, the Bon Secours nuns said the Commission’s report presents a history of our country in which many women and children were “rejected, silenced and excluded”.

They also said women were subjected to hardship and their inherent human dignity was disrespected, in life and in death.

“Our Sisters of Bon Secours were part of this sorrowful history,” said Sister Eileen O’Connor, area leader, Sisters of Bon Secours Ireland.

“Our Sisters ran St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam from 1925 to 1961.

"We did not live up to our Christianity when running the home.

“We failed to respect the inherent dignity of the women and children who came to the home. We failed to offer them the compassion that they so badly needed.

We were part of the system in which they suffered hardship, loneliness, and terrible hurt.

“We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the Home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way.

“For all that, we are deeply sorry.

“We offer our profound apologies to all the women and children of St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, to their families, and to the people of this country.” 

She said “healing is not possible until what happened is acknowledged” and hoped that both Church and country can learn from the Commission report.