Antipathy towards single mothers evident

The story of the babies’ cemetery in Tuam has revealed a rather schizophrenic streak within Irish society.

There has been considerable outrage and cries of ‘shame’, and perhaps not without reason. It seems a little unfair, however, that today’s public can heap such opprobrium on nuns who were asked by Irish society to take on this task when it was Irish society — families and courts — who sent these girls to mother and baby homes in the first place because they did not want them around.

It seems equally unfair to specifically blame the Catholic Church, considering such homes operated under similar, or worse, conditions in the Protestant UK.