Double trouble as past and present show State’s failings

World of Politics with Harry McGee

This week offered two very good examples of the failings of Irish society – past and present – with the publication of the report into the mother and baby homes, and the coronavirus crisis unfolding before our eyes. The 6,000 page report on 18 institutions – operating at various times after the foundation of the State in 1922 right up to the 1990s – was inspired by the research of Galway historian Catherine Corless, and her invaluable work in understanding why there was such a discrepancy between the mortality records and burial records at the Bon Secours-run home in Tuam.

As is usual with Irish politics, there was a row about its launch. The Minister for Children, Roderic O’Gorman, had promised survivors of the homes that they would find out about its details before anybody else.

Unfortunately, as so often happens these days, somebody in Government decided it would be a good idea to leak the main findings of the report ahead of its launch.

O’Gorman was incensed; he demanded an investigation and wrote to survivors telling them he was “deeply angered” by all that had happened.

You can see why. In the past, survivors of these institutions have learned of very important and salient information through the media, rather than from Government.

On December 3, O’Gorman promised survivors that he and the Taoiseach would disclose the main findings to them first, and then host a seminar (it’s web-based now, because of restrictions) and only then would the report be published.

But what happened on Sunday played puck with the plan. It also served as a huge distraction from what should have been a formal process, where the pain, the suffering and heartbreak caused by these cruel institutions were fully acknowledged and apologised for.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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