Scandal of mother and baby homes ‘care’

I read Juno McEnroe’s article on Archbishops Diarmuid’s speech at the McGill summer school (Jul 25) and I am disgusted with the Archbishop’s disingenuous reference to investigating the “quality of care” in mother and baby homes.

These notorious hellholes were in many ways the worst of the Catholic institutions which scar Ireland’s history. Mother and baby homes were maternity hospitals run by unqualified nuns without doctors or medical equipment, where scared, vulnerable girls (often the victims of rape and incest) were half-starved and terrified to the point that mortality rates consistently ran at two and three times the national average over generations.

Between the three Sacred Heart M&B homes, there are approx 2,000 to 4,000 babies and children buried in unmarked graves without coffins, birth certs, death certs or even names.