Deaths of Children in Mother and Baby Care Homes (did they die of starvation?)

This is Eugene Jordan, past President of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society being interviewed by Niall McConnell of Síol na hÉireann on 15 February 2021. The topics include naming and shaming the politicians who spread false information regarding the deaths of children, comparing religious run Homes to secular County Homes plus the living and social conditions in Ireland during the first half of the 20th century.

[ See previous articles on the Tuam Babies especially "Seminar on Tuam Children's' Home" and "Open Letter to Archbishop Michael Neary" ]

 Eugene Jordan Exposes lies of the Mother & Baby Care Homes  15/2/21

The above YouTube video consists of  an Introduction only. The full video interview is HERE: 

Eugene Jordan Exposes lies of the Mother & Baby care homes:

Eugene: Irish politicians took the word "Marasmus", which appeared as a cause of death on a small number of death certificates as evidence of starvation. It was a lie, and that has been proven in the  Final Report of Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation. Will politicians have the guts to do the right thing and apologise for misleading the people?

(A) Eugene Jordan: Politicians and "Children Starved to Death"

The following quotations are from Eugene Jordan's website FALSE HISTORY DEBUNKED and specifically from his article Political Fantasy – Children Starved to Death The first quote is from Chapter 33: Deaths of the Final Report of the Commission - concerning the Marasmus issue

33. 5. Some commentators have concluded that infant deaths which occurred in mother and baby homes due to marasmus indicates that infants were neglected, not appropriately cared for, and/or wilfully starved to death in these institutions.

However, marasmus was a frequently cited cause of infant deaths in institutional, hospital and community settings in early twentieth-century Ireland. The Commission considers it unlikely that deaths in hospitals and family homes were due to wilful neglect and so cannot conclude that the term marasmus denotes wilful neglect in mother and baby homes. The more likely explanation is that marasmus as a cause of death was cited when an infant failed to thrive due to malabsorption of essential nutrients due to an underlying, undiagnosed medical condition. 

Dáil Éireann debate – Wednesday, 27 Jun 2012 

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin)
In 1939, the Government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer refuted damning public and health inspectorate concerns in regard to the standards of care at Bethany Home on the basis of a barbaric belief that it was normal for children of unmarried mothers to suffer from starvation. While no action was taken by the Government to protect the children in Bethany Home, which was a Protestant run home, the State did force the home to cease admitting Catholic mothers and babies. What does that say about the State, its orientation and actions?

Dáil Éireann debate – Tuesday, 10 Dec 2013 Bethany Home: Motion [Private Members] 

Deputy Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Féin)
Evidence in the public domain and records held by Departments tell us this, yet the Minister of State will table an amendment to the Sinn Féin motion that is beyond a distortion of the truth. She has underpinned her amendment with an argument set out in the same vein as that used by the State’s deputy chief medical adviser in the 1930s. He was of the view that children born outside of marriage were prone to starvation and, judging by the amendment before us, it appears the Government shares this view.

In 1939, the State’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer visited Bethany and attributed the ill health of children – rickets, scalding and purulent conjunctivitis – in the home to the fact that they were “illegitimate” and, therefore, “delicate” and prone to starvation. Are the Minister of State and the Government supporting that view in 2013?

The State colluded. In 1939, for example, the deputy chief medical adviser, Dr. Winslow Sterling Berry, dismissed public concerns and even the concerns of his own health inspectors, by claiming that it was “well known that illegitimate children are delicate and marasmic” – in other words, that they suffered from starvation.

Deputy Niall Collins (Fianna Fáil)

Records reveal that 54 of the children had died from convulsions, 41 from heart failure and 26 from marasmus, a form of malnutrition. 

Dáil Éireann debate – Tuesday, 26 Feb 2013  Magdalen Laundries Report: Statements (Resumed) 

Deputy Robert Dowds (Labour Party)

Sterling Berry, in 1939. In his report, Berry reported that it was well recognised that a large number of illegitimate children were delicate and marasmic, which means they were suffering the effects of starvation. I stress that this is from the report of an inspection of the home by the State. Was the State involved, was it indifferent to their plight and did the State fail them? The answer is obviously “Yes”.

Deputy Seán Crowe (Sinn Féin)
The big question that arises during this debate, when one steps back from the apology, is why it took the State so long to accept that it played a central and crucial part in supplying the women who were enslaved, starved, ill-treated, abused and treated with cold contempt.

Dáil Éireann debate – Tuesday, 10 Jun 2014 

Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Sinn Féin) 

Cemetery records indicate that the causes of death included 54 from convulsions, 41 from heart failure, 26 from starvation and seven from pneumonia. 

[NOTE: the death certs record marasmus not starvation]

Dáil Éireann debate – Wednesday, 11 Jun 2014 Death and Burial of Children in Mother and Baby Homes: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] 

Deputy Seamus Healy (Independent)

State inspection reports described children as being fragile, pot-bellied and emaciated. Cause of death was regularly recorded as starvation. [NO marasmus]

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett (Solidarity–People Before Profit)

Children died of starvation or were used as guinea pigs, while families were ripped apart. It is an appalling stain on our history.

Deputy Ciara Conway (Labour Party)

Young women were forcibly separated first from their communities, then from any sense of pride or self worth and then from their babies. Their babies were neglected and starved, with illnesses untreated. They were seen as worthless and buried, ultimately, in unmarked graves, left in the end without even an identity.

Deputy Seán Crowe (Sinn Féin)

Women’s children were starved and disease, including TB, was rampant. The child mortality rate was massively higher in these institutions than among the general public and the State allowed this to go on. 

Seanad Éireann debate – Tuesday, 27 Jan 2015 
Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes: Motion 

Senator Marie Moloney (Labour)
State inspection reports described children as being fragile, emaciated and pot-bellied. Cause of death was often recorded as starvation. [NO: marasmus]

Dáil Éireann debate – Thursday, 9 Mar 2017: Commission of Investigation Announcement on Tuam Mother and Baby Home: Statements 

Deputy Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fáil)
What was uncovered in Tuam is only the tip of the iceberg. We do not know exactly how these babies died and it seems likely they were left to starve or die in the cold, as the mortality rate is too high to suggest otherwise.

Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Sinn Féin)
In Sean Ross Abbey, the death register lists a total of 269 deaths between 1934 and 1967, but some of those buried in the plot there are not listed on the register. It is also deeply shocking and appalling to learn that the main cause of death in the case of some 20% of the deaths in Bessborough was marasmus or severe malnutrition – in other words, death by hunger was happening in the 1940s and 1950s in Cork. At a minimum, we need to expand drastically the terms of reference of the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes.

Deputy Mick Barry (Irish Solidarity–People Before Profit)
According to a former chief medical officer of the State, James Deeny, in his autobiography, To Cure and to Care, in one year alone, of the 180 children born in the home 100 died. One in five of those who died in the 1934 to 1953 period died of marasmus, that is, severe malnutrition.

Seanad Éireann debate – Thursday, 9 Mar 2017 
Commission of Investigation Announcement on Tuam Mother and Baby Home: Statements

Senator Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) [Daughter of President Michael D Higgins]  

There were 472 deaths in 19 years in the Bessborough home. Some 80 of those children were suffering from marasmus, which means severe malnutrition, including babies who have in many cases been taken away from the arms of their mothers, who have not been allowed to breast-feed them. Children suffering from malnutrition – an issue which is easy to control, deal with and address – represent almost 20% of known deaths in a short period in the Bessborough home alone, as we heard in the story earlier.

Senator Catherine Noone (Fine Gael)
Women were starved, neglected and hidden from society. They suffered horrendous abuse. It is imperative that we now respond with sensitivity and respect to what has been unearthed.

Dáil Éireann debate – Tuesday, 7 Mar 2017: Leaders’ Questions

The Taoiseach (Enda Kenny, Fine Gael)
We gave them up because of our perverse, in fact, morbid relationship with what is called respectability. Indeed, for a while it seemed as if in Ireland our women had the amazing capacity to self-impregnate. For their trouble, we took their babies and gifted them, sold them, trafficked them, starved them, neglected them or denied them to the point of their disappearance from our hearts, our sight, our country and, in the case of Tuam and possibly other places, from life itself.

Dáil Éireann debate – Wednesday, 22 Mar 2017: Commission of Investigation Announcement on Tuam Mother and Baby Home: Statements (Resumed)

Deputy Seán Crowe (Sinn Fein)
They have come up to me and started telling the story of what they went through – the starvation, abuse, malnutrition and the fact their spirit was broken. That is what we did. We stripped people and took their clothes away. We took their identity, beat them and starved them. This was all done for what was supposed to be the greater good of some individuals or idea.

Dáil Éireann debate – Thursday, 18 Jan 2018: Report of the Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Statements (Resumed)

Deputy Kate O’Connell (Fine Gael)
We murdered them in their hundreds through neglect and hate, brutalised them in the name of salvation and enslaved them in the name of redemption.

My Comment: Most of this hysteria is coming from Sinn Fein, Labour and Independent Deputies - precisely the people who re likely to form a Government following the next General Election in Ireland. However they are ably backed by Fine Gael including former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny and the craziest comment of all comes from former Fine Gael Deputy Kate O'Connell. If Sinn Fein come to power and try to use undemocratic methods to implement populist but unviable economic polices, Fine Gael don't have the moral courage to stop them. 

(B) The Ravings of Junior Minister John Halligan - AND the Media

Some of the above can be (partly) explained by confusion concerning the meaning of the term "Marasmus" - that does not indicate deliberate starvation by nuns, or anyone else. However a more generic kind of hysteria is also loose in this country. Fine Gael Deputy Kate O'Connell exemplifies it  (last quote above) as does former Junior Minister (for Training and Skills) John Halligan. See Irish Times article dated 11 March 2017  "Death Rates in Mother and Baby Homes similar to Concentration Camps’" subtitled "Minister of State John Halligan says Old Age should not Diminish Responsibility for a Crime"

Independent Alliance minister John Halligan has compared child mortality rates in mother and baby homes to Nazi concentration camps. The Waterford TD also said religious orders found guilty of criminal neglect should have their assets seized. The Minister of State for Training and Skills said elderly nuns who worked in the homes should be interviewed as part of expected criminal investigations to be conducted by gardaí.

“Old age should not diminish accountability for any crime or alleged crime. If you bear in mind that the child mortality rate at Bessborough in 1943 was approaching 70 per cent, sure that’s similar to concentration camps,” he said. “Are we seriously saying that because somebody is ill or aged that we shouldn’t at least interview them? If you look at what’s happened at Belsen, Auschwitz, Dachau, even up to last year individuals who are alleged to have carried out horrendous crimes in their 80s and 90s were interviewed.”

Mr Halligan was speaking to RTÉ Radio on Saturday in the wake of confirmation last week from the Mother and Baby Homes Commission that “significant quantities” of human remains found at a mother and baby home in Tuam run by the Bon Secours Sisters belonged to young infants. Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone is said to be considering broadening the commission of inquiry’s remit to include other homes beyond Tuam, and will examine her options over the coming weeks.

Referring to State grants paid to the Bon Secours order for maintenance of children in its care as well as sums received through the sale of children to foster parents in the US, Mr Halligan said monies should be seized if significant wrongdoing is established. “I think there has to be an investigation, everybody has to be interviewed, and if it is found that they’re guilty of neglect, well their assets should be seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, ” he said.

Much of this hysteria was whipped up by the media with politicians jumping on the band-wagon to get votes (although I doubt if people like John Halligan and Kate O'Connell needed any encouragement). I wrote about the media background in "Open Letter to Archbishop Michael Neary regarding Tuam Home" It includes an article by Emer O'Kelly in the Sunday Independent on 8 June 2014 "Tuam Babies Cry Not For Justice But For Vengeance" that opens with the following:

Seventy years ago, on the orders of a maniac, little children and babies were herded into barren camps in Germany and occupied Poland by men in black uniforms. They were starved to death in those camps; sometimes they had hideous medical experiments carried out upon them while alive, so hideous the silence of death was probably merciful. And when they died, their little bodies were thrown into huge pits. Because they were scum: Jewish scum.

During the course of the article Emer O'Kelly trice denounces the Good Shepherd Sisters i.e. the wrong nuns! 

The demonising of the nuns is not confined to bigoted anti-clerics: "Progressive" priests who like to make themselves popular with the media also get in on the act. On 1 June 2014  Fr Brian D’Arcy had an  article in the Sunday World entitled “Fr Brian: Baby Graves are Our Greatest Crime” that begins as follows:

“When I first heard the news that more than 800 babies were buried in what was formerly a septic tank I was astonished – because initially I thought it happened in some famine-stricken country today. Then I thought I was hearing about Nazi Germany…..”  

It's in no way surprising that four weeks later the same same Sunday World carried an article subtitled “Councillor Seeking Justice For ‘Murder’ of Babies" It includes THIS:

I saw a baby in a nun’s arms and blood dripping along the floor. I saw another nun standing with a shovel in her hand. I was a 12 year old. I knew they were going out to do something, or dig a hole for that child but nobody would listen to me.

The claims of child murder (and dumping babies in a cess pit) are complete lunacy comparable to the 19th century hysteria in Canada over the "Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk" that also involved claims of infanticide by nuns in Montreal. As per the Wikipedia article on Maria Monk: "If the sexual union produced a baby, it was baptized and then strangled and dumped into a lime pit in the basement." Of course all Catholic priests and bishops denounced the allegations and supported the nuns at the time. "Progressive" priests and Bishops (like recently retired Archbishop Diarmuid Martin)  who endorse secular anti-clericalism are a modern phenomena! 

(C) Commission Acknowledges Existence of False Allegations!

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission actually acknowledges that some allegations of  abuse are false! This is a surprise to me given that the Ryan Commission (to which I gave evidence) did no such thing.  An article in the Irish Times by Patsy McGarry dated 14 January 2021 headed "Commission dealt with 1.3m documents and held 195 hearings" has as its subheading "Report from body states that its conclusions ‘may not accord with prevailing narrative’" and begins

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission states in bold type in its report that “the conclusions it reaches may not always accord with the prevailing narrative”. As well as adhering to its terms of reference, it says: “It must look at all the available evidence and reach conclusions based on that evidence. It must be objective, rigorous and thorough........”

The confidential committee report “outlines the experiences of those who chose to recount their experiences. They are not a representative sample of the residents of the institutions under investigation,” it said. And while there was “no doubt that the witnesses recounted their experiences as honestly as possible”, it had “concerns about the contamination of some evidence. A number of witnesses gave evidence that was clearly incorrect. This contamination probably occurred because of meetings with other residents and inaccurate media coverage,” it said.

 

(D) Bethany Mother and Baby Home - a PROTESTANT Institution

I was slightly surprised to see that the Protestant Bethany Home was also the subject of false allegations of starving children - coming mainly (of course) from Sinn Fein but Deputy Niall Collins of Fianna Fail makes a contribution as well by referring to Marasmus as "a form of malnutrition"., This seems to be the sole Fianna Fail contribution to this brand of hysteria. It does indicate that irrational attacks on the Catholic Church have a way of spreading.- and corrupting the entire society.

However the Catholic Church was always the main focus of attack - as pointed out by David Quinn in article in the Irish Independent on 10 March 2017 Harsh Victorian Morality at Core of Mother and Baby Home Scandals He contrasts the attitude of politicians to the Tuam Home run by Bon Secours Sisters vis a vis the Bethany Home. First he quotes the words of the then Fine Gael Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny in the Dail (Irish Parliament) that week:

 "Tuam is not just a burial ground, it is a social and cultural sepulchre. That is what it is. As a society in the so-called 'good old days', we did not just hide away the dead bodies of tiny human beings, we dug deep and deeper still to bury our compassion, our mercy and our humanity itself. No nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children. We gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns' care."

David Quinn points out that our Prime Minister's tone and his words contrasted very sharply with those of the Labour Party's Kathleen Lynch in 2013 when she addressed the Dáil about Bethany Home, which also housed unmarried mothers and their babies. Ms Lynch, then the junior minister in the Department of Justice, used much softer language than the Taoiseach, even though hundreds of babies also died in Bethany Home and were buried in an unmarked grave.

Explaining the high death rate in the Protestant-run institution she said: "Unfortunately, poverty and disease were commonplace in Ireland up to the 1950s and this was reflected in infant mortality rates. Infant mortality rates in the 1940s were at a level that is hard to comprehend today, about 20 times higher than now and that figure applies across the entire population. For those who were malnourished and subject to disease and a lack of hygiene, the figures would have been higher still."

Responding to critics of the home, she said: "Our Constitution demands we respect the rules of natural justice. People are entitled to a fair hearing and an opportunity to protect their good name…it seems to have been accepted at the time that Bethany Home was run by people with charitable motives."

 It's clear that different moral standards are being applied to Catholic and non-Catholic institutions and personnel. However it seems to me that the differences are lessening now as society becomes more secular and ALL forms of Christianity are coming under attack from politicians who stand for nothing and therefore concentrate on spewing hatred at their religious adversaries!

(E) My Conclusion - Blood Libel Forever?

(i) This hysteria can be said to have begun in 1997 with an article in The Mirror (by their Irish editor Neil Leslie) entitled HOT POKER WAS USED ON LITTLE MARION.. NO CASH WILL GET HER BACK; I THINK MY BABY WAS MURDERED AT THE ORPHANAGE, SAYS PAYOUT MUM. concerning the death of baby Marion Howe in 1955 i.e. 42 years previously. THAT libel was aimed at the Sisters of Mercy and specifically at the late Sister Xavieria Lally. However in subsequent years the MAIN targets were the Christian Brothers. Leaders of four "Victim" groups were quoted in the media as claiming that the Brothers had killed boys in their care, especially in Artane and Letterfrack industrial schools. A number of these allegations related to periods when no boy died of ANY cause (!) so I coined the phrases "Murder of the Undead" and "Victimless Murders". For obvious reasons accusers did not normally state the names of the killer Brothers! The initial phase of our Blood Libel hysteria may be said to have ended in 2009/10 with a Garda investigation into claims that the Catholic Church colluded with Garda authorities in the case of the unsolved murder of schoolgirl Bernadette Connolly in 1970. The immediate targets of the child murder claim were members of the Passionist Order but the suggestion was that Archbishop John Charles McQuaid intervened to stop the Garda investigation.

I summarised this phase of our witch-hunt in my article "Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews!"

(ii) Over the years I thought on a few occasions, that the Blood Libel hysteria was played out. The above article was based on one I submitted to the Sunday Tribune in 2006; this related mainly to the Christian Brothers and the Murder of the Undead claims. I had to update it following the manufactured hysteria in 2009 concerning the death of Bernadette Connolly, four decades previously - and for a time I thought THAT was the end! I once wrote that Blood Libel in Ireland followed  a logical trajectory in that 

• it began in 1997 with an allegation that related to the death of a REAL baby - because Blood Libel  was new in Ireland and needed the appearance of credibility
• it  came to an end in 2010 with reference to the unsolved murder of a REAL child - because several claims had been refuted and credibility was again a factor BUT
• between these two dates, anti-clerical Hysteria reigned supreme and journalists thought they could get away with anything including "Murder of the Undead" allegations!

Even THAT cynical analysis now looks too hopeful with allegations that nuns starved babies in the Mother and Baby Homes. The fact that the Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes refuted those claims, won't put a stop to our anti-clerical hysteria, if the history of the last quarter-century is anything to go by.

(iii) The chief proponents of the death by starvation narrative were Sinn Fein (including leader Mary Lou McDonald) and other left-wing Deputies and Senators -- including Senator Alice-Mary Higgins (Ind) the daughter of President Michael D Higgins. These are the people who are likely to form a Government after the next General Election (given that we are now governed by a coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Greens). However the anti-clerical hysteria promoted by Sinn Fein was echoed by Fine Gael - including their former leader and Taoiseach Enda Kenny. The most grotesque comment of all was actually made by  then Fine Gael Deputy Kate O'Connell: 

We murdered them in their hundreds through neglect and hate, brutalised them in the name of salvation and enslaved them in the name of redemption. 

What sort of Opposition are Fine Gael going to provide to a Government dominated by Sinn Fein? If Sinn Fein try to pass dubious legislation, is President Michael D going to refer it to the Supreme Court (given his expressed admiration for Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez)?  I have written about this issue at the end of my article "EU Commissioner Phil Hogan Forced to Resign...." - section (F) "Conclusion: Sinn Fein and Antifa"

(iv) Forthcoming Book by Eugene Jordan "The Irish Attack on Christianity - The Case for the Defence"

In March 2021 a book by Eugene Jordan with the above title is due to be published. He writes that Irish Christianity has been under attack for more than seven decades now. The attacks  increased in ferocity in the second decade of the twenty-first century and reached an extraordinary level of frenzy when Christian-run Mother and Baby homes were accused of starving and murdering children in their care. These allegations are lies, the evidence to disprove the falsehoods is abundant and simple to understand, yet the Irish political establishment and media have chosen to ignore it.

The book essentially tells the story of how the Irish came to hate the Irish - especially the Catholic Church - and thrashes out the causes at the court of reason.

As Ireland enters the third decade of the twenty-first century, it stands at the most embarrassing moment in its intellectual history. The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes finished and published its final report, which has again been subject to biased misreporting. The commission has rubbished many of the scandal propagators’ notorious claims to their credit but has made several significant errors of its own. 

 

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the Simpsons and Our Insect Overlords

 

Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin

Archbishop Diarmuid AKA Kent Brockman welcoming our Insect Overlords

(A) Former Catholic Ireland and our New Secular (Insect) Overlords

Ladies and Gentlemen .....The Corvair spacecraft has apparently been taken over, 'conquered' if you will, by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive Earthmen or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.

And from the other side - Adolf Hitler: "The final state must be: in St Peter's Chair, a senile officiant; facing him, a few sinister old women, as gaga and poor in spirit as anyone could wish. The young and healthy are on our side". 

I have a previous article on this Blog The Decadence of the Sisters of Mercy describing nuns whose current mental and moral status isn't far removed from that described by Hitler. I have an article on Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on my old website IrishSalem.com Unfortunately his antics cannot be explained or excused by Senility!

This current article is, in part, a response to one by the Religious Affairs correspondent of the Irish Times Patsy McGarry on the Archbishop's forthcoming retirement  - "Diarmuid Martin’s Successor Must be Cut From the Same Cloth" (subtitle "Fears Rome will impose an archbishop more interested in protecting its own interests") What our secular elite (or Insect Overlords) require is a prelate with minimal concern for the rights of falsely accused priests like Fr Kevin Reynolds or laity like John Waters BOTH libelled by State broadcaster RTE - as child abuser and homophobe respectively. Or indeed for the rights of a family - including four children - driven out of their home on 4 occasions by mobs. I write about the latter case in Section (E) below 
.

(B) Archbishop Diarmuid and I

I have had a few run ins with Archbishop Diarmuid over the years. More than a decade ago when I was still (relatively) young and innocent, I sent him two emails regarding false allegations of child abuse against Catholic clergy. I can't locate them just now but they would have been an early version of my article Eight Falsely Accused Bishops (and Archbishops) in Ireland No reply - not even an acknowledgement . A few weeks later I attended the Easter ceremonies in the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin which was my usual annual habit at the time (I have since changed it) and ran into his secretary there. I mentioned it to him and he suggested that I put the emails in writing and send them by post. I did so and again - of course - there was no reply. Some time later I spoke about this episode during a public meeting and said I assumed it was because the Archbishop is a "Liberal" and doesn't communicate with Reactionaries like myself. A very liberal priest there assured me that he had the same problem getting a response and that our Archbishop only communicates with VIPs! (Note [1] and [2] )

I describe my most recent run-in with the Archbishop in my article "Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Cancellation of Seminar on Tuam Children’s Home" The health authorities had approved our History Seminar - to be held in Newman University Church, Dublin on 30 August 2020 with maximum attendance of 50 - as complying with Covid Regulations. However the Archbishop insisted that the event be cancelled. We had to relocate to Galway on 4 October. See "Seminar on Tuam Children's Home (Online) - Transferred to Galway" 

My article Irish "Antifa" Attacks Protesters - "Liberal" Irish Media Don't Mind includes a description of an indirect run in with the Archbishop - see section on "The Decadence of Archbishop Diarmuid". I have been at three demonstrations (in favour of Free Speech and opposing the Covid lockdown regulations) at which we were violently attacked by Antifa types - and I barely missed a fourth one which turned out to be the most violent. The Archbishop appears to have said nothing about the attackers but he condemns those of us who were targeted by the thugs. Weimar style decadence!

(C) The Archbishop and Miss Panti Bliss

In February 2014 Irish State broadcaster RTE agreed to pay libel damages to six members of the Iona Institute (for Religion and Society) after a TV broadcast on the Saturday Night Show in which drag queen Rory O'Neill - alias Miss Panti Bliss - described them as Homophobes. It was not a spontaneous act - he was invited by RTE presenter Brendan O'Connor to name names! Irish Times columnist Breda O’Brien told the Irish Times that she and other members of the Iona Institute only sought libel damages after RTÉ refused to apologise over the claim of homophobia.

Ms O’Brien said she was not “remotely interested in money”, but agreed to accept damages because “people don’t take you seriously unless there is some sort of settlement. The key issue here is that RTÉ walked itself into a defamation case and then offered a completely inadequate response which is a right of reply”. She maintained that Saturday Night Show presenter Brendan O’Connor should never have asked Mr O’Neill to name names. “All we wanted was an apology and was offered a completely inadequate response which was a right of reply. It is not up to you to defend yourself. It is up to the organisation that defamed you."

The six Iona members - including another Irish Times journalist John Waters - accepted a modest total amount of €85,000 but there were furious objections in the Irish Parliament and media to any payment. It was necessary for RTÉ’s head of television Glen Killane to explain that the €85,000 payout  saved the broadcaster “an absolute multiple” in the long term. Mr Killane said it would have been “absolutely reckless” of RTÉ not to settle the case. He told RTÉ Radio’s News at One programme the broadcaster was faced with six different defamation actions and was told by “very senior counsel” that it was unlikely it would be able to defend any defamation action in court.

So how did the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin react to the libelling by our national broadcaster of what  Wikipedia describes as "a socially conservative Roman Catholic advocacy group"? Well naturally he had no objection! According to a report in The National Post (Canada) 

The Catholic Church’s senior official in Dublin, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, conceded that the church did harbour people with hostile and un-Christian attitudes toward gays. “Anybody who doesn’t show love towards gay and lesbian people is insulting God,” Martin said. “They are not just homophobic if they do that. They are actually God-ophobic, because God loves every one of those people.”

O’Neill, as is his style, had a quip to capture the absurdity of his situation. “I love the fact that the archbishop has essentially come out for Team Panti,” he told the AP.

 

(D) The Archbishop and the Sisters of Mercy

"..a senile officiant; facing him, a few sinister old women, as gaga and poor in spirit as anyone could wish..."  Adolf Hitler predicts future of Catholic Church

A few years ago I was told an extra-ordinary story about the Sisters of Mercy and Archbishop Diarmuid. Apparently the Sisters were deeply shocked when the Archbishop threw them to the wolves in the aftermath of the publication of the Ryan Report on industrial schools in May 2009. So the nuns who cheerfully betrayed their own innocent colleagues in a desperate attempt  to make themselves popular with "victims", were surprised when the Archbishop did the same to them. Obviously there's no honour among thieves!

I have an article on the Sisters of Mercy in my old website (not Blog) IrishSalem.com This story may be related to the following extract from that article:

Finally and In Conclusion
Bishop Willie Walsh was quoted by Patsy McGarry in the Irish Times on 14 November 2009:

He had been speaking recently to the leadership team of the Mercy congregation’s southern province, “women who have given their lives in the service of the church”, and who were “very broken, very sad”. They felt “let down by us, the bishops”.

So that explains nearly a decade and a half of self-degradation by the Sisters of Mercy - and other female religious. It was the Bishops that made them do it! 

 

(E) Is Archbishop Diarmuid Martin a Saviour of the Irish Church? (Politics.ie discussion)

The following is an extract from a discussion on Politics.ie mainly in 2011-12 on the topic "Archbishop Martin - a Saviour of the Church"

Corelli Dec 18 2011: He is liked and disliked in equal measure in Rome, one hears. Liked because he is the only bishop who has handled the clerical abuse issue properly. Disliked because, for the Roman church, he is an extreme liberal, which to most mortals, would make him a mild conservative.

Kilbarry [Myself] Dec 19 2011:  I have a long article on the Archbishop on my website and part of it refers to a discussion on Politics.ie over a year ago [i.e. in 2010].

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin

The Archbishop and Mob Hysteria
In June/  July 2010 in Co. Wicklow, a family comprising parents and four children were driven out of their homes on four occasions by mobs. On the last occasion the mob burned down their home in Ashford. The reason for the hyteria was that 18 years previously (in 1992) the husband had been convicted of a sex offence against a minor and got a suspended sentence of six months. There was a discussion on the Politics.ie website entitled "Labour Councillors Join Mob Harassment of Innocent Family" and I wrote (among other things}:Labour Councillors Join Mob Harrassment of Innocent Family - Page 18 

The family have been hounded out of Kilcoole, Redcross, Rathnew and Ashford. I think they are all in the Archdiocese of Dublin which covers most of Co. Wicklow as well. Ashford certainlly is and that is where their house was burned down. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has become a great hero of the liberal media because of the way he has dealt with allegations of child sexual abuse. He cannot make a speech without denouncing the evils of abuse and apologising for the way the Church dealt with them in the past. He even put pressure on Bishop Martin Drennan to resign even though NO criticism had been made of him in the Murphy Report. (Like the Wicklow mob, the Archbishop seems to believe in guilt by association.) ......Would it be too much to ask the Archbishop to condemn the behaviour of the people who hound an innocent mother and her four children? The mob are abusing these innocents. Moreover the hysteria and fanaticism generated by the mob will rebound on real victims of child sexual abuse in the future. Cynicism is what normally follows after Hysteria.

MY CURRENT COMMENT [Dec 2011]: Archbishop Martin likes to run with the hares and hunt with the hounds. He has no intention of raising issues that might bother Irish "liberals" - for example why did Labour Councillors on Co Wicklow back up the actions of those mobs?

NotAnotherPolitician said: How come he could spend €94,000 on a kitchen for his palace if he is all you make him out to be?

Kilbarry [Myself] - reply to NotAnotherPolitician Dec 19 2011 The fact that he kept his mouth shut when mobs in his diocese drove a family (including 4 children) out of their home on four occasions and burnt the house the last time, is rather more important that what he spends on his kitchen.  So is the following from my article Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, 

The Archbishop and Auxiliary Bishops of Dublin The most egregious example is the Archbishop's treatment of retired auxiliary Bishop Dermot O'Mahony. The Archbishop removed Bishop O'Mahony from his position as director of the archdiocese's pilgrimage to Lourdes on the basis that “I regret that you did not express any public clarification or remorse or apology” (letter dated 2 December 2009). However Bishop O’Mahony had sent a statement to the Archbishop’s Director of Communications Annette O’Donnell on 27 October 2009 which concluded : “I profoundly regret that any action or inaction of mine should have contributed to the suffering of even a single child. I want to apologise for my failures from the bottom of my heart”. The statement was not published by the Communications Office but Annette O'Donnell confirmed that the Archbishop had seen it. He made no apology to Dermot O'Mahony and indeed continued to criticise him. ....

Martin told lies about one of his own auxiliary bishops. Presumably he thought he could get away with it because after all, what could Bishop O'Mahony do about it? Well Bishop O'Mahony passed on the correspondence to the Irish Catholic and from there it got to the rest of the media. This was unprecedented in the history of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Martin's treatment of Bishop O'Mahony is one of the major reasons why the Archbishop is disliked and indeed despised by his own priests and by the rest of the hierarchy. The fact that anti-clerics love him goes without saying!

borntorum: The fact that you dislike him only raises my opinion of the man

Kilbarry-reply to borntorum Dec 20 2011: In general do you approve of telling lies - or is it only when a "liberal" slanders a "reactionary"? 

On a related issue do you think the Archbishop - as a self-proclaimed defender of abused children - should have condemned the Wicklow mobs last year especially the mob that burned children out of their home? 

The Herren said: There is no doubting this man's ability or compassion. Pity he wasting so much of these qualities preaching and practicing mumbo jumbo.

Kilbarry -reply to The Herren Dec 20 2011: I will repeat the second part of a previous post:..."On a related issue do you think the Archbishop - as a self-proclaimed defender of abused children - should have condemned the Wicklow mobs last year especially the mob that burned children out of their home?

The mobs were attacking the home and family of a man who had got a suspended sentence in 1992 for the indecent assault of a minor. The man had four children who were driven out of 4 successive houses by thugs who claimed (like the Archbishop) to be acting in defence of children. These were not the kind of children that our beloved Archbishop wanted to be seen defending. He is interested only in Politically Correct causes and these were NOT PC children!

Kilbarry Feb 27 2012:  The following letter appeared in the Irish Times today. In fact there IS a connection between the Archbishop's unwillingness to support falsely accused priests AND his unwillingness to condemn mobs in his Archdiocese who drove a family out of their homes on four successive occasions and burned down the home the fourth time. The protection of children is not the issue here - or at any rate it's not what motives our beloved Archbishop!

The Irish Times - Readers Letters and Feedback

A fear among priests

Sir, Breda O'Brien (Opinion, February 11th), in writing about the possibility of complacency regarding child abuse, says: "There is also the very real fear among priests that things have moved so far in the opposite direction that any priest is presumed "guilty as charged". There are some bishops . . . who believe it is impossible for a priest to return to ministry even when it is clear that a priest was falsely accused."

The implications of these attitudes for the working relationship between bishop and priest are far-reaching. The promise of respect on behalf of the priest was to be honoured by the bishop with a duty of care. In the past the exaggeration of respect and honour led to a culture of clericalism but their absence now as a result of the abuse crisis has created a vacuum in which trust has been replaced by suspicion on both sides.

Gathering around the bishop as a sign of unity has lost its meaning since I, and many priests like me, on being summoned to Archbishop's House on any issue would not attend unless accompanied by a witness, if not a solicitor. Yours, etc,

Fr GREGORY O'BRIEN PP,
St Jude the Apostle,
Willington,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.

Warrior of Destiny Feb 27 2012: If Diarmuid Martin became Pope tomorrow he'd be the FDR of the Vatican.

Kilbarry Feb 27 2012: Does that mean you approve of his silence when a Wicklow mob burned a family - including four children - out of their home because the father had got a suspended sentence 20 years before? And what about the Labour Councillors in Wicklow who endorsed the action of the mob and voted that anyone who "associated with" a sex offender should be denied housing by the Council. They were referring to the wife and children of this man. Diarmuid Martin had no words of criticism for the mob-endorsing politicians either. That's the way FDR behaved is it?

Des Quirell : I was silent on that issue too. What does that say about me? If he is to comment on every arising issue he'll be damned as in interfering fool.

Kilbarry-Reply to Des Quirell Feb 27 2012: Martin specialises in denouncing child abuse. The four homes attacked by the mob were in his Archdiocese. There was political support for the mobsters from the Labour Party. The mobs claimed to be acting to protect children from the father of the family. This is the issue that has defined Martin's role as Archbishop - but the problem is that the victims were the wife and children of a man who had been convicted of a sex offense 20 years previously. THAT is why Martin kept his mouth shut.

LamportsEdge That's a dangerous title to have in the catholic pantheon of the magisterium ('saviour') ... Martin would want to stay away from Calvary-like hills and run like hell should he spot Shatter looking at him quare like...

Kilbarry Feb 27 2012: Martin is regarded as a liberal hero for much the same reason that the [Anglican] "Red Dean" of Canterbury the Rev Hewlett Johnson was similarly regarded half a century ago. The Rev. Johnson denounced the evils of capitalism while proclaiming the "authentic" Christian virtues of Comrade Stalin. He was secretly despised by his progressive friends who regarded him as the greatest "Useful Idiot" of them all.

After Prime Time's case against Fr Kevin Reynolds collapsed, Martin denied that the Irish media in general have any special animus against the Catholic Church. ("Mission to Prey" was just an unfortunate exception it seems.) While I cannot swear that Patsy McGarry and John Cooney see our Archbishop as the CURRENT Most Useful Idiot, I strongly suspect it.

LamportsEdge: Seeing as he has now twice been passed over for a red hat despite being hotly tipped for one I'd say that there is as much evidence for the current Opus vatican to see him as the Useful Idiot in the welter of degeneracy of the Irish church. He was a financial expert seconded to the UN in Geneva and his career was mostly around high finance rather than ideology or ministry- it is possible he was regarded as 'unsoundly liberal' some time ago by the Opus contingent and given the poisoned chalice of an Archbishopric in Ireland to keep him out of the college of cardinals.

Kilbarry - reply to LamportsEdge Feb 27 2012: I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here. My impression is that Martin is widely distrusted and despised by his own priests as a hack who will say anything to make himself popular with the media. The Vatican are certainly aware of this opinion and one solution might be to kick Martin upstairs by making him a Cardinal and giving him a role in "high finance" or whatever. The trouble is that this will be represented by the media as the Vatican going soft on child abuse by removing our journalists own fake hero (and real clown). There is no easy way out of this dilemma but I favour the "kick him upstairs" approach myself.

Corelli: There is to be about 13 more vacancies in the College of Cardinals in the next 12 months with most of the vacant Cardinatial See's having being filled at the last one. Therefore, if Martin is to get the Red Hat within the life time of this present Pope, there is about another 12 months to do it.

There are a number of factors in play. The rumor amongst the Catholic bloggers and papers, is that Martin, actually, has a very good personal relationship with the Pope, and within the Vatican, has still very good relationships within the Curia, having worked there for so long. There is a suggestion that if the Eucharistic Congress is not a disaster he might get one as reward next time. [Emphasis mine, RC] 

However, there is ONE HUGE fly in the ointment. Geography. There presently is a living and serving Irish Cardinal, namely that twit Brady, who, with the best will in the world, has not sufficient intellect, charm or influence to be still in the job. The only way Martin could get one in that situation is to get one of the Vatican which automatically gets the Red Hat. Now Martin would, I am sure, like to be back in the Vatican, but there are limited jobs going and he would not like a token appointment in the Curia which would give him title but no power and totally scupper his chances of the "big" job.

Kilbarry - reply to Corelli Feb 27 2012: I am definitely not an insider where these issues are concerned. However, between talking to my few contacts and what was published in the media, I did ascertain one important fact. The two auxiliary bishops of Dublin Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field understood that they had the support of Archbishop Martin for their initial refusal to resign after the publication of the Murphy Report in November 2009. Then suddenly to their amazement and without warning, Martin indicated in a Prime Time programme in December 09,that he did NOT support them.

So they felt that they had no alternative but to tender their resignations to Pope Benedict. However they both wrote personal letters to the Pope saying the SOLE reason for tendering their resignations was Martin's public repudiation of them! Thus Pope Benedict refused to accept their resignations.

If that is the case - and I have good reason to believe that it is - I cannot see how Martin can possibly have a good working relationship with the Pope. I suspect that the door is being left open for him to return to a high-sounding post in the Curia where he can do a lot less harm than as Archbishop of Dublin. That may account for the impression that he is in good odour with the Vatican. In other words it IS a question of kicking him upstairs as soon as it is possible to do so!

Kilbarry -continued: And the following extract from an Irish Times article dated 21 December 2009 tends to support my view. It quotes Eddie Shaw who worked in the Dublin Archdiocese Communications Office in 2002-03:

Archbishop's Response Criticised Irish Times, Dec 21, 2009 by Patsy McGarry

Eddie Shaw, .... said communications strategy by the archdiocese following publication of the Murphy report had been "catastrophic . . . absolutely catastrophic"

Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1's Marian Finucane programme yesterday, he said: "I think, Marian, it's wrong, the way it was done is wrong. Communicating with people who are your auxiliaries through the Prime Time programme in the way it was done - that was wrong.

"What's going on now this weekend in the papers, with the Archbishop in Rome saying close this matter down until I return to it again in the New Year" , he said. "I will talk specifically for the two men I worked with, Bishop Éamonn Walsh, Bishop Ray Field in particular", he continued. .......

He asked: "How much preparation do you need to prepare for something like this when you know what's coming down the track? How much preparation do you need to be informed, to be advised to have a communications strategy? Can somebody show me where the evidence is of a communications strategy that is based on a church that has a mission to its people?" .......

Asked about Archbishop Martin saying on the same Prime Time programme that since publication of the Murphy report the previous week only two bishops had called him offering support, Mr Shaw said: "I actually don't understand that comment . . . Is that a reflection on the gap that has opened up between one bishop and his brother bishops? Is that a reflection on the way some bishops thought about the way he communicated? I don't know. I can't answer that." ......

"Why not have the people in, talk to them one to one, tell them this is going to happen. Why would you communicate that for the first time, as apparently it was done, across the airwaves on Prime Time?"

Good question and the answer may be that Martin likes the sound of his own voice on TV and just decided - on the spur of the moment - to badmouth his colleagues and his auxiliary Bishops. Nothing would surprise me about that clown!

Toland Feb 28 2012: He seems to me at least a normal, decent human being. In the company he keeps that makes him look like a saint.

Kilbarry - reply to Toland Feb 28 2012: Martin told lies about his auxiliary Bishop Dermot O'Mahony and he tried to get Bishop Drennan of Galway (former auxiliary in Dublin) to resign even though NO criticism of him was made in the Murphy Report. The man is a liar and a vicious clown. (In comparison to him the "Red Dean" of Canterbury was at least innocent, although a complete fool!) See in Archbishop Diarmuid Martin 

The Archbishop and Auxiliary Bishops of Dublin
The most egregious example is the Archbishop's treatment of retired auxiliary Bishop Dermot O'Mahony. The Archbishop removed Bishop O'Mahony from his position as director of the archdiocese's pilgrimage to Lourdes on the basis that "I regret that you did not express any public clarification or remorse or apology" (letter dated 2 December 2009). However Bishop O'Mahony had sent a statement to the Archbishop's Director of Communications Annette O’Donnell on 27 October 2009 which concluded : "I profoundly regret that any action or inaction of mine should have contributed to the suffering of even a single child. I want to apologise for my failures from the bottom of my heart". The statement was not published by the Communications Office but Annette O'Donnell confirmed that the Archbishop had seen it. He made no apology to Dermot O'Mahony and indeed continued to criticise him.

In November 2009 the Archbishop invited the Bishop of Galway Martin Drennan who had previously been an auxiliary Bishop of Dublin to "consider his position" after the publication of the Murphy Report. While the Report mentions Bishop Drennan, it makes no criticism whatsoever of his conduct! In order to consolidate his status as a media hero, does the Archbishop want to hand the media as many heads as possible on a platter?

 

I did a brief reprise of the subject in January 2016 when I published an article on this Blog: 

Kilbarry - Jan 16 2016

Archbishop Diarmuid - Sins of Omission re Child Sex Abuse

There is an article on Archbishop Diarmuid Martin here - based on a Politics.ie discussion in 2010. A family with 4 children had been driven out of their homes on four occasions by mobs in Co. Wicklow when the mobs discoverer that the father had a conviction for sexual contact with a minor nearly 20 years previously. (He got a 6 months suspended sentence which gives some indication of how grave the offence was.) On the FOURTH occasions the woman promised to separate from her husband so naturally the mob reacted differently this time around; they burned the house down with all the family's possessions inside! Wicklow County Council then passed a motion saying that anyone who "consorted with" a sex offender should not be housed by the Council!

So what did Archbishop Diarmuid do - this "Saviour of the Church", this champion of abused children? Why nothing at all. The 4 children of a man convicted of a sex offence almost 20 years before, merited no word of sympathy from the Archbishop.

Anyway here here is the article Labour Councillors Join Mob Harrasment of Innocent Family - CONTINUED

Karloff : Shocking story. Only thirty years ago these kinds of communities were following moving statues.

I believe (aside from issues relating to the ongoing safety of children) that once any offender serves their sentence then they have served their sentence. In times like this people rely on authority to protect them from the mob as a last line of defence, those political whores in that council are the mob themselves.

Kilbarry Jan 16 2016: Two Labour Party Councillors were responsible for the motions that denied housing to people who "consorted with" sex offenders and thereby supported the actions of the mob. However the motions were passed unanimously by Wicklow County Council in June 2010. Presumably the councilors from other parties were afraid to vote against, because public opinion was on the side of the lynch mob! However an article in the Sunday Independent on 4 July 2010 pointed out that one man DID protest:

One lonely figure stands out as the voice of reason and fairness: Michael Nicholson, the director of services with Wicklow County Council, who called what happened an example of mob mentality, and stands over that remark.

Now all praise to Michael Nicholson, but note that he was a civil servant and NOT a politician and so his job didn't depend on the mob.

However there was one other person who could have intervened with complete safety. This was Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, the cleric who is a hero to nearly all ANTI-clerics in Ireland! The Archbishop can hardly give a speech without apologising for the (real or imagined) sins of the Church against children. [And when I say "imagined" I refer to his attempt to get Bishop Drennan to resign even though NO criticism had been made of him in the Murphy report.] If any OTHER cleric had denounced the Wicklow mobs, he would have been shouted down as a defender of paedophiles but our caring and compassionate Archbishop could have done so - or, at the very least, he could have expressed sympathy for the four children of the family. Archbishop Diarmuid said nothing because he is a fraud whose only concern is to present himself as a hero in the eyes of our "liberal" journalists.

I have a gut feeling that they despise him!

Kilbarry Feb 29 2020: I believe Archbishop Martin is due to retire shortly and there may not be the usual year long extension either. For some reason his period in office and his crawling before the secular power remind me of a classic episode in The Simpsons "Deep Space Homer" [see video at beginning of article]

One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new insect overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.

And a great job Diarmuid made of it. However I get the impression that even his anti-clerical admirers are getting just a little bit tired of the guy - one might even say they are bored with his endless speaking pious platitudes to power!

Rory Connor

30 November 2020, amended 2 December 2020 

NOTES:

[1]  "A very liberal priest there assured me that he had the same problem getting a response and that our Archbishop only communicates with VIPs!"

So why didn't I think of that? Perhaps because I had heard of Archbishop McQuaid's effort to reply personally to every letter he received.  See for example Colum Kenny's article "My Hour Alone with John Charles McQuaid" (when he was a schoolboy)

 I remember the archbishop later sighing about the amount of correspondence he received from people. He waved a hand across the papers on his desk and muttered: ``They write to me about the system. What system? There are only people''; or words to that effect.

John Charles current successor, Archbishop Diarmuid gets over THAT problem by ignoring correspondence from non-VIPs!

[2] Extract from Phoenix Magazine article on "Patricia Casey" 25 January 2013. 

She has a particular disdain for that experienced media operator and career Church diplomat, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin. Following Martin's description of the latest crop of young priests as "traditional" (conservative) and "fragile", she dissed the Archbishop in vociferous terms in the the Irish Examiner last July [2012]. Querying with ill-disguised sarcasm whether Martin had access to 'fragile' priests psychological assessments, Casey accused Martin of being unwilling to put forward positive solutions to the crisis in the Church. This she argued is because Martin is afraid of what "critics of the church and of religion might say at any given moment", a fear she describes as "crippling". By critics Casey meant the IT [Irish Times] and other liberal pundits whom she believes - not without foundation - Martin is in thrall to.

The astute Casey also believes - again with justification - that amongst among its priests, Martin is the most unpopular prelate to head the Dublin archdiocese for many years. This is partly because of his willingness to suspend any priest against whom an abuse allegation is made pending inquiries but also because of an apparent distain both for lowly clerics and for traditional Catholic mores. In short he is a liberal sheep in Bishop's vestments. Casey's broadside on young priests stung Martin as evidenced by his riposte defending his choice of language about newly ordained priests. When it comes to the crisis engendered by sex abuse in the Church, Casey has been stern and censorious in her description of clerics' deviant behaviour and what must be done. However, she is also critical of those in the Church, like Martin, whom she believes are on the run from aggressive secularists."

Nice to see my own views confirmed!

Seminar on Tuam Children's Home (Online) - Transferred to Galway

This is a follow up to my article "Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and Cancellation of Seminar on Tuam Children’s Home" The Seminar originally scheduled for Dublin University Church on 30th August was cancelled by Archbishop Martin and eventually held in Galway on 4 October. I had intended to do an article on the subject but www.CatholicArena.com have done so much better than I could. This is a link to their article IRELAND'S MOTHER AND BABY HOMES: THE REAL STORY (After several postponements, Judge Yvonne Murphy is due to present the Report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes to Government on 30 October 2020).

At the conference in Galway, three historians (including my amateur self), Brian Nugent, Eugene Jordan and Rory Connor discussed the various inconsistencies in the prevailing public narratives of this period of Irish history. 

Brian Nugent: Did Home Rule equals Rome Rule in Independent Ireland?

SUMMARY: Brian Nugent (author of  @Tuam Babies: A Critical look at the Tuam Children's Home Scandal) spoke on the topic “Did Home Rule equal Rome Rule in Independent Ireland?” He endeavoured to show that the frequently repeated claim of a kind of Catholic dictatorship in Ireland can be shown to be false. Firstly by examining the attitude of the Taoisigh [Prime Ministers] of Ireland in those years, then from the pattern seen in a number of other important institutions, such as the Judiciary, Presidency, and Lord Mayoralties of Dublin, and sectors like healthcare and especially education, and finally by raising the surprising subject of anti-Catholic discrimination in the South of Ireland in those years

W.T. Cosgrove was effectively the first Taoiseach (Prime Minster) of independent Ireland - from 1922 to 1932. He was indeed very religious and a close friend of Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary. However in a letter to Archbishop Gilmartin of Tuam on 11 March 1931 he wrote (in relation to a dispute about the appointment of a Protestant librarian in Co Mayo):

"As I explained to Your Grace at our interview, to discriminate against any citizen - or to exercise a preference for a citizen - on account of religious belief, would be to conflict with some of the fundamental principles on which this State is founded."

A look at the career of Eamon de Valera (first became Taoiseach in 1932)  throws up three issues which are infrequently brought up: i) his excommunication, along with all the anti-Treaty side, during the Civil War. He and his colleagues didn’t modify their behaviour to accommodate the Bishops admonitions then, so surely that proves  their independence in political matters from the latter? ii) The angry reaction from many important Catholics to the lack of recognition of that religion in his constitution, including to a degree from the Pope and certainly from influential clerics like Fr Edward Cahill S.J. and Fr Denis Fahey C.S.Sp, who campaigned vigorously against his constitution on those grounds for many years. iii) The surprising fact, thrown up by modern research in archives in Dublin and Rome, that de Valera himself seemed to be most responsible for the appointment of Michael Browne to the Bishopric of Galway, and Dr McQuaid to Dublin. The State also influenced the Church as well as the other way around!

Sean Lemass (Taoiseach 1959-66 and de Valera's Deputy since 1932)

Extract from his taped Memoirs:

 "I think there was a political advantage in having a certain anti-clerical tinge.......The only time in my life that I ever got an enormous vote, the highest vote ever accorded to any candidate in a general election was when I was having a full-scale row with the bishop of Galway [Dr Michael Browne in 1944] and this was dominating the political scene and I found this on other occasions too – that having a good row with the bishop is quite a political asset and you do not suffer politically for it because there is an anti-clericalism in the Irish people."

First Four Presidents of Ireland

1. Douglas Hyde (1938 - 45)                     Protestant

2. Sean T. O'Kelly (1945 - 59)                   Catholic

3. Eamon de Valera (1959 - 73)                Catholic

4. Erskine Childers (1973 - 74)                  Protestant 

Lord Mayors of Dublin

Robert Briscoe (1956-57 and 1961-62)    Jewish

Maurice Dockrell (1960-61)                       Protestant

Judiciary

From the biography of Timothy Sullivan, first President of the Irish High Court (1924-36):

"Throughout his tenure Sullivan presided over a high court whose membership of six was equally divided between judges of a nationalist and unionist background."

Examples of non-Catholic judges of the time include:

 T. C. Kingsmill Moore, son of  a Protestant Minister, a Senator 1943-47, he was a High Court judge 1947-51 and on the Supreme Court 1951-66.

James Creed Meredith, President of Dail Supreme Court 1920-22, judge of the High Court 1924-37, on the Supreme Court and for a time President of it, 1937-42.

Gerald Fitzgibbon T.D. 1921-23, judge on the Supreme Court 1924-38.

Healthcare: Some Dublin Hospitals in 1959 (amalgamation was being considered)

The hospitals concerned are Sir Patrick Dun's; Mercers; the National Children's Hospital, Harcourt St; the Meath; Baggot St; Steevens and the Adelaide. With the exception of the Meath, they could all be referred to as Protestant Hospitals, controlled by Protestants and largely staffed by Protestant doctors.

Rotunda Hospital

The Rotunda Hospital, Dublin was founded in 1745 as a Maternity Training Hospital, the first of its kind. It got its first Catholic Master in 1995!

Education (1964 quote from Irish Senator)

"We in Ireland are justly proud of our school system, he continued. Scrupulous care is taken that Catholicism, Protestantism or Atheism are not imposed on any pupil against his will. Any denominational group can, at any time, set up its own school and the corresponding State support is immediately made available on the basis of the number of pupils in attendance"

At Independence in 1921, the new Irish State took over the education system set up by the British in the 19th century without making any major changes. There had been furious controversy between the Bishops and the British Government in regard to the setting up of the National Schools (primary) system and the Queens Colleges (university) system. This was largely settled in the 1870s when the British agreed that all religious denominations in Ireland could build and run their own schools, while the State would pay the salaries of the teachers. The curricula for the Primary Certificate, Intermediate Certificate and University entrance examinations were set by the State but apart from that, the school managers could create their own study programmes for Religion, History  etc. The Catholic Church and all major Protestant Churches established their own schools on that basis. A Jewish Primary School was set up in south Dublin in the 1930s and later a a Jewish Secondary School.

In more modern times Educate Together (or atheist) schools were set up on the same basis from about 1979 and a Muslim school in 1990.

Trinity College

 Ireland's first university established by the British Government in 1592 appointed its first Catholic Provost in 1991. Its reputation as a Protestant/Unionist stronghold was such that until 1970, Catholic students were not  permitted to attend without permission from the Archbishop of Dublin. After 1921 it continued to be subsidised by the State on the same basis as the other universities. Under the terms of the 1937 Constitution, graduates of Trinity College elect three Senators to Seanad Eireann.  

Guinness 

"It (Guinness) had no qualms about selling drink to Catholics but it did everything it could to avoid employing them until the 1960s ...the blatant discrimination continued far longer than it should have" (Irish Independent, 17 June 2013)

Bank of Ireland

Founded in 1783, the Bank of Ireland got its first Catholic Chief Executive Officer in 1991.

Irish Times

Founded in 1859, the Irish Times appointed its first Catholic editor in 1986

Brian Nugent stated that it is nonsense to talk about some kind of Catholic dictatorship and Home Rule did NOT equal Rome Rule in Independent Ireland!

Eugene Jordan:'Tuam Children's Home Story & Failure of Modern Irish Historiography'

SUMMARY: Eugene Jordan, recently the President of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, spoke on the question: “The Tuam Children’s Home story, a failure of modern Irish Historiography”. He described a lamentable pattern of how modern Irish historiography – the history of history –  unfairly runs down the Catholic Church, and frequently the good work of Irish people in general in the recent past. He spoke about the inferiority complex that seems very prevalent among Irish people in modern times, and to a degree among modern historians, and  questioned the sometimes intimidatory atmosphere created by feminism over some of these issues.

Regarding the limitations of Historiography in general (and the claim that the Catholic Church is hostile to Science) Eugene presented us with names of famous scientists few members of the public are aware of:

• Lazzaro Spallanzani: First person to perform In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) in 1786 meaning in the glass as opposed to in utero, in the womb. Pioneer into the study of echo location in bats.        
• Eugenio Barsanti: Inventor of the first practical internal combustion engine. 
• Giovanni Castelli: Inventor of the Fax machine       
• Jean Antoine Nollet: Discovered the osmosis of membranes        
• Giovanni Battista Venturi: The Venturi Effect is named after him   
• René Just Haüy: Father of Crystallography
• Georges Lemaître:  One of the most famous scientists in the world you have never heard of. First person to come up with the Big Bang Theory
  

All were Catholic priests! .......... So indeed was the anatomist Gabriele Falloppio, for whom the Fallopian Tubes and other anatomical structures are named. So feminists who talk about the female sexual organs are invoking the name of a priest!

Deaths at the Tuam Children's Home have been compared to a "Holocaust" and explicit references have been made to the Nazis. So let's compare the statistics for the 36 year period from 1925 to 1960 inclusive) when the Home was open to a recent 36-year period from 1982 to 2017. 

The number of births between the two 36 year periods is remarkably similar with a figure of close to 2.2 million. Points to note. A mere 12,632 infants (less than one year old) died in the 1982 to 2017 period representing a massive drop from the 145,818 infant deaths in the earlier period. This means that 4,166 babies died on average in Ireland each year in which the Tuam Home was open. That figure has dropped in recent decades to an average of 361 infant deaths per year - or less than one tenth the number. This is in line with the drop in infant mortality that has taken place over the developed world - although the drop in Ireland lagged behind the rest of the world for  a few years due to the continuing economic deprivation.

There were 64,290 illegitimate children born in Ireland between 1925 and 1960 of which 13,431 children died but that figure is dwarfed by the deaths of 132,387 legitimate children, a figure nearly 10 times greater. Nearly all of these infants and children died from birth defects and diseases, which could not be inoculated against and were incurable at the time.

Compare Deaths by Age Groups THEN and NOW. According to a CSO graph (that compared 1916 to the present day), in 1916 slightly over 8,000 children under the age of 5 died in Ireland - compared to a few hundred in 2014. However in 2014 a little over 8,000 people died in the Age Group 75 - 84 i.e. similar to the number of infants in 1916!  Where children are concerned the pattern of deaths has to an extent been reversed in the last century! This can also be seen in the age group 5 to 14 where close to 2,000 children died in 1916 compared to a tiny number in 2014

Eugene stresses the connection between poverty and childhood death rates, that continues to the present day - and not just in the Third World. He quotes a Newsweek headline from May 2015 "Washington's Poorest Infants are Ten Times More Likely to Die Than Richest" He discusses the claim that Catholic nuns (and the Protestant women who ran Bethany Home) allowed  children to starve to death. 

"The primary evidence put forward for abuse and starvation is the appearance of the word Marasmus. Marasmus found on Death Certificates is what is chiefly used to accuse the nuns and the Protestant women of murder. 

Only 14 out of 796 death certificates from the Tuam home record the cause of death as being due to marasmus (10 as the primary cause) with a further 156 recording debility as the primary and contributory cause of death. It would appear that the journalists sensationalising the murder claims could not find the term debility associated with starvation on Wikipedia, even though it was classified alongside marasmus as ‘wasting disease’ thus they missed the opportunity to increase the number of ‘starved to death’ by tenfold!

"Looking at an extract from the Registrar General's Report for 1919, you can see what the medical profession think Marasmus is. It's a developmental and wasting disease and the three of them are there Atrophy, Debility and Marasmus. THIS is significant. Marasmus was also a killer of infants in Maternity Hospitals outside of Mother and Baby Homes. 

"Here is a Certificate with Marasmus on it. It's from the Adelaide Protestant Hospital (now amalgamated with Tallaght Hospital). Here we have evidence of Murder, Slaughter! [3 month  old infant died of Marasmus 25 July 1935]

Here we have Marasmus again. It's at Temple St Children's Hospital - murder taking place there! [10 week old infant died of Marasmus 21 May 1942] 

Here is another case of Marasmus where the child died at home and death has been certified by a medical professional. A doctor visited the home, certified that a child suffered from Marasmus and subsequently when the child died of Marasmus.[6 months old child, died of Marasmus, 26 November 1942, Ashtown

"Here is the famous Rotunda Hospital. Two cases of Murder there as well! [One infant died on 13 May 1942 aged 15 days and the second on 14 May 1942 aged 7 weeks, both from Marasmus]

"Here is an advertisement entitled "CURE OF MARASMUS: At seven months, she weighed under nine pounds". If Marasmus is Starvation as they are trying to make out, why is there a cure for it? Surely it's food or adequate food? [The Evening Herald, 3 March 1902]

"Here is a newspaper article from 1925 headed Death of Nurse Child. It states that Death from Marasmus was the verdict returned at an inquest held at Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital on the body of a 9 months old nurse child of Thorncastle St., Ringsend. The coroner said that because of the condition of the child when it was brought to the hospital, the house surgeon was of the opinion that it had died from starvation but the post mortem showed that death was due to natural causes. The child had been under treatment for six months  in the Children’s Hospital, Harcourt St. and did not seem to improve. Dr. Hogan, house surgeon, stated death was due to marasmus, the child not being able to assimilate the nourishment given it. The jury found in accordance with the evidence."

i.e. the child did not die from starvation!

Rory Connor: False Allegations of Child Abuse Against the Catholic Church, including Homicide

SUMMARY: My talk is based on my Blog article "Blood Libel in Ireland - Directed Against Catholics not Jews!".  I had originally intended to make limited reference to the Tuam Home itself BUT I had come to realise that it also included references to the Nazi Holocaust and claims that the Bon Secours Sisters had starved children to death (an issue highlighted by Eugene Jordan in his talk). Accordingly Tuam assumed a higher profile than I first thought necessary. In the above-mentioned article I assumed that Ireland's Blood Libel hysteria had come to an end in 2010 when the Gardai informed the then Minister for Justice that their year long inquiry into the murder of Bernadette Connolly in 1970, had disclosed NO evidence of involvement by the Catholic Church. But of course, anti-clerics - like anti-Semites - are immune to rational considerations and an article by Emer O'Kelly in the Sunday Independent on 8 June 2014 "Tuam Babies Cry Not For Justice But For Vengeance" opens with the following:

Seventy years ago, on the orders of a maniac, little children and babies were herded into barren camps in Germany and occupied Poland by men in black uniforms. They were starved to death in those camps; sometimes they had hideous medical experiments carried out upon them while alive, so hideous the silence of death was probably merciful. And when they died, their little bodies were thrown into huge pits. Because they were scum: Jewish scum.

[I could also have pointed out that Emer O'Kelly twice denounces the Good Shepherd Sisters in her Sunday Independent article  i.e. the wrong nuns!]

I date the start of my present "Crusade" to 25 September 1999 when the Irish Times published an article by Patsy McGarry quoting a leading member of Survivors of Child Abuse Ireland who claimed he had attended the funerals of boys in Artane who died after being punched by a Christian Brother. No boy died of ANY cause while this gentleman was in Artane Industrial School! There were numerous such allegations published and broadcast between about 1997 and 2010. As indicated in "Blood Libel in Ireland" the first and last related to the deaths of real children - reinterpreted to blame the Catholic Church - but in between hysteria reigned in the media and there were a number of articles and broadcasts in which the Christian Brothers were accused of killing non-existent boys. I coined the phrases "Murder of the Undead" and "Victimless Murders" to describe the latter. 

About 2000 and again in 2001, I approached the Gardai (Irish police) about two of these Murder of the Undead claims (by the Irish Times and TV3 respectively) as I felt they must be in breach of the Prevention of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989. The Director of Public Prosecutions declined to prosecute - perhaps on the basis that false allegations of child killing do not PROVE that the media are motivated by hatred!  In 2004 I approached the Irish Human Rights Commission who were no help at all. (One reason they gave me for refusing to look into the issue of false allegations of child murder, was that it wasn't in their Three Year Plan!) However my dealings with the IHRC inspired me to summarise the allegations of child murder against the Catholic Church into one document. The above-mentioned article "Blood Libel in Ireland - directed against Catholics not Jews" is an updated version of that 2004 document.

Tuam Mother and Baby Home: The REAL Story (Brian Nugent)

SUMMARY: The Tuam controversy alleges that babies were buried in a septic tank. This arises from no other source than the coincidence that the area of the current graveyard of the Children's Home, corresponds with old maps referring to a 'cesspool' attached to the old workhouse, as discovered by Catherine Corless. But this can be easily disproved as insignificant, for example:

- the cesspool corresponds to about a quarter of the area of the current graveyard, but that graveyard was condensed drastically around 1980 and was a much bigger area when the nuns were there which therefore makes it unlikely that they buried bodies at that exact spot;

- the large old cesspool, was only an over ground structure where manure was temporarily placed before being sold off to use on farms, therefore it isn't very significant to say that the same area could be used for burials some 100 years later;

- and it can be easily proved that the bones discovered by recent excavations are reburials by the County Council during c.1970-1981, creating a dedicated structure, an Ossuary, to house bones thrown up by their development of the site during that period. This of course is long after the nuns had left.

 A Discussion about Tuam and other topics

SUMMARY: The seminar ended with a discussion among the three speakers. Rory described some of the atmosphere in the Irish religious orders and congregations when these scandals broke. One congregation of nuns went from naivete, in cooperating and apologising enthusiastically with sometimes unfair allegations, to terror, as they realised to what extent it was a witch hunt against the Catholic Church. Hence his blog is called irishsalem.blogspot.com (with reference to the original Salem Witch-hunt).

[I also spoke of my Novice Master in the De La Salle Brothers, Brother Maurice Kirk, a conservative who nonetheless invited the "radical priest" Fr Michael Sweetman SJ to give us our 8-day Retreat at the end of the novitiate - August/September 1967. I suppose I am a relic of that long ago era that might have been a historical Turning Point - but History failed to turn and the world is as it is now!].   

Eugene pointed out that when the Ryan Commission expanded its remit to include physical abuse, rather than just sexual, then any teacher – and maybe parent – of that time could have fallen foul of their criticisms because corporal punishment was widespread everywhere at the time, not  just among the religious orders.

Meanwhile Brian pointed out the too trusting attitude that the modern Irish Church has to the State with respect to these inquiries. The Church overdoes its cooperation with the inquiries expecting justice, whereas some in the State see the advantage in discrediting the Church in the eyes of the populace, to assist in their various referenda campaigns etc

My Conclusion 

An article by Alison O'Reilly in the Irish Daily Mail on 8 April 2017 is headed "We Want Inquests Into All Deaths, Tuam Victims Tell Zappone" and begins

The families of the children buried in a mass grave in Tuam have told the Minister for Children, 'We want an inquest into all the children's death', the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.. It follows a two-hour meeting which took place yesterday between the Minister for Children Katherine Zappone and local Government Minister Simon Coveney as well as Kevin O'Kelly, chief executive of Galway County Council  and survivors of the home as well as relatives....

Those in attendance included local historian Catherine Corless who uncovered the names of the 796 children who died in the home, as well as Tuam resident John Rodgers, PJ Haverty, Walter Francis and and Michael O'Flaherty....During the meeting, Ms Zappone was given a brief submission by solicitor for some of the residents Kevin Higgins. In it he asked that the Government 'act with urgency' and to hold  a proper coroner's inquiry. The submission also said 'the failure of the Attorney General to invoke 24 of the Coroners Act as early as 2014 represented a serious failure of judgement'. It also urged against carrying out inquests into 'unidentified infants', and sought individual post mortems for each body....

Catherine Corless said: 'I am quite pleased, I expected an hour but they gave us a good bit of their time. It was good. They were fairly challenged and everyone got a chance to talk. They need an inquest, there's no point in moving them into a big grave.'.[my emphasis]

Regarding Inquests and Inquest reports, Citizen's Information states that: 

If a person dies and the death cannot be explained, an inquest may be held to establish the facts of the death, such as where and how the death occurred. An inquest is an official, public enquiry, led by the Coroner (and in some cases involving a jury) into the cause of a sudden, unexplained or violent death. An inquest is not usually held if a post-mortem examination of the body can explain the cause of death. [My emphasis]

 So it seems we are back where it all began more than 20 years ago with claims that Catholic nuns - in 1997 it was the Sisters of Mercy - were criminally responsible for the deaths of children in their care. All deaths in the Tuam Home were certified by doctors appointed by Galway County Council so it is clear that the reputations of those doctors are also being trashed!

Perhaps Catholic activists like myself should respond in kind? I noted above that a doctor at the Rotunda Maternity Hospital certified two infant deaths from Marasmus on consecutive days in May 1942. Compare the Tuam Home where doctors certified 14 Marasmus deaths over a period of 36 years (1925-1961)! Moreover the Rotunda, founded in 1745, did not get its first Catholic Master until 1995! Is not this deeply suspicious? Perhaps we should have a series of inquests on all Catholic children who died in the Rotunda from the foundation of the State until 1995. To reduce the size of the task, we could include only cases where the Death Certificate for a Catholic child was signed by a Protestant doctor! The resulting investigation should be of no greater size than holding inquests into the deaths of the 796 children who died in Tuam.

Rory Connor

30 October 2020