Zappone lashed over her Tuam comments

There were calls this week for the Minister for Children Katherine Zappone to retract comments she made about the people of Tuam following further revelations about the Mother and Baby Home.

Following the publication of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes two weeks ago, Minister Zappone claimed that the people of Tuam knew more about burial practices at the home than had been revealed to the Commission.

However, these claims were strongly refuted at a meeting of Galway County Council on Monday where Tuam-based councillor Donagh Killilea (FF) sharply criticised the Minister’s actions.

“I totally disagree with the Minister – I felt she cast an aspersion on the people of Tuam,” said Cllr Killilea, as he called for an end to the “drip-feeding” of information from the Commission.

He said the revelations about the home in Tuam had caused a “media frenzy” in the town, with claims that children were sold to the US and dead babies had been put in sceptic tanks – both of which he said there was no evidence to support.

“Where were the Sky News vans and the CNN vans in Tuam two weeks ago when they were told that there were never babies sold?” said the Fianna Fáil councillor.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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