Oldest survivor of Tuam mother and baby home to purchase first home after fundraising appeal

Chrissie Tully, aged 91, from Loughrea, Co. Galway.  Ms Tully now awaits the exhumation of the Tuam babies’ site which begins next month
Picture: Hany Marzouk

The oldest survivor of the Tuam mother and baby home has begun the process of purchasing her first home from Galway County Council thanks to a successful fundraising appeal launched in her name.

Chrissie Tully, from Loughrea, Co Galway, was incarcerated in the notorious religious-run home for unmarried mothers twice, first at 18 and again aged 23. She was told that her first child, a boy, had died at birth, while her second son, Patrick, was adopted without her consent.

With concerns raised by survivor communities over baby trafficking to the US at the time, as well as the regular falsification of birth and death certs, Ms Tully fears her first son — Michael — may have been adopted to the US without her knowledge. She never got to see either his death cert or a grave.

“He’s either alive with no clue about me and his brother, or he is buried in that hole in Tuam,” she told the Irish Examiner.

“I don’t know. It hurts me very much. I don’t know where he is, but I am living with that all my life. For years I could accept he died, then when the mass grave in Tuam was discovered, that haunted me.

“I can’t sleep at night, is he dead or alive? I have this image of the children all stuck in a pipe in that awful place in Tuam and my son is with them”.

Following an appeal in the Irish Examiner earlier this month, which was picked up by The New York Times, a GoFundMe campaign raised almost €72,000 to help Chrissie buy her council home where she has been a tenant for more than 20 years.

Chrissie Tully 91 from Loughrea with her son Patrick Naughton. Picture: Hany Marzouk

Now, the 94-year-old, who never married, has submitted her application to Galway County Council to begin the purchase of the house in Loughrea, which was valued at €50,000 last year.

“I still don’t believe all that money is there,” she said. “I never owned a thing in my life. I had very little. I will believe it when I see the final papers.

“I asked for help and strangers helped me. There are some good people in the world.

“My other son Patrick who lives in England came home for a few days to help.

“I keep thinking someone will come and take all that money back and this is not real”.

Ms Tully was sent to the Tuam home by a local priest in Loughrea when she was just 18 years old in December 1949.

She suffered extreme pain during labour and was rushed to Galway Central hospital by the nuns where her boy, who was a breech baby, was taken away by doctors immediately.

Ms Tully never saw his face and never held him in her arms and when doctors returned, they said he had died.

There is one record she received under Freedom of Information that states the little boy, who she named Michael, died at birth and the hospital record says, “Return to Tuam”.

“Those three words have haunted me since I got the record a few years ago,” said Chrissie. “I don’t know if he was returned to Tuam or sent away, you can’t believe anything you are told by the nuns”.

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Ms Tully now awaits the exhumation of the Tuam babies’ site which begins next month along with other family members. 

She is believed to be the only surviving mother from the Tuam home.

“That’s the second part to this horror story, there is the generosity of people helping me to leave my son my house if he is alive, and the dread of what is to come out of that pit in Tuam next month.

“But I do want people to know that I am so grateful for their support. I am so shocked I haven’t been able to take it all in.”