'I just feel my mother is being fobbed off. I don’t think it is one bit fair on her'

Chrissie Tully has been in hospital three times in the last five months, and her health is declining. Photo: Hany Marzouk

A 94-year-old mother and baby home survivor who raised more than €70,000 on GoFundMe to help buy her council house is still waiting for the sale to go through – five months after making a purchase application.

Chrissie Tully is the oldest known survivor of the Tuam mother and baby home, where she gave birth to two baby boys. Earlier this year, her son Patrick Naughton, who was adopted at birth and with whom Chrissie was later reunited, helped her to raise funds to buy her council home.

"It's the only thing she will ever own,” said Mr Naughton at the time, adding that his mother wanted to own the house "in the hope that her missing son will have a place to call home should he ever return".

Chrissie's other son, Michael Tully, is recorded as having died in Galway Central Hospital in December 1947 after Chrissie was rushed there from Tuam where she underwent a “complex breech delivery”. The infant was taken away immediately and Chrissie was told he had died.

Unproven concerns have been raised for decades by survivors and families about the falsification of death certs for children born in the mother and baby homes. Chrissie thinks Michael may still be alive.

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“I’m growing close to death,” Chrissie told the Irish Examiner earlier this year. “I hope he will turn up somewhere; the idea that he may still be alive keeps me awake every single night and I spend the night saying the rosary for him".

When Chrissie first told her story to the Irish Examiner, thousands of donations began flooding in to a GoFundMe to help her purchase her home. However, her son Patrick said there has been “no movement” on the sale.

“I am over here (in London) working, and I live with my family, so I am trying to help my mother Chrissie from the UK.

“I helped her make the application when I was home last, but she is in and out of hospital this year and this is her one wish, her only request in life, is to leave Michael a home in case he is alive and comes home.

“That’s a terrible way to live. For all we know he could be in the Tuam mass grave that they are digging up now, we just don’t know, but my mother lives in fear that if he comes looking for her, and she will be gone and have no where for him to go.” 

Mr Naughton said he has got “nowhere” with Galway County Council in his efforts to progress the sale "only unanswered calls and letters" since his mother applied to buy the house in May.

He said:

People in the area have waited just three months for their sale to go through. Locals have shared their experiences, and it seems Chrissie is the longest waiting.

“She has been in hospital three times in the last five months, and her health is declining. I feel awful for her because she is worried that she will die without resolving this.

“I have rang the council, but I just feel my mother is being fobbed off. I don’t think it is one bit fair on her. She never asked for anything in life and all these extremely generous members of public paid for her home.”  Galway County Council has been contacted.

The exhumation of the Tuam mass grave is currently underway as forensics try and locate the 796 missing children who died in the Bons Secours-run former mother and baby home for unmarried mothers which operated from 1925 to 1961.