Cannon calls for urgent inquiry into Tuam child deaths

Fine Gael TD for Galway East and Minister of State for Training and Skills at the Department of Education, Ciaran Cannon, has called for an urgent inquiry, including a Garda investigation, into the circumstances surrounding the unexplained deaths of a large number of children at a Tuam mother and baby home. This matter was raised by Minister Cannon over the weekend with the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald TD and Minister for Children, Charlie Flanagan TD.

“Following research by a local historian into the operation of the mother and baby home run by the Bon Secours order, it has emerged that up to 796 children may have died at the home during the period of its operation from 1925 to 1961. Records in the possession of Galway County Council list a very large number of deaths occurring at the home. Details are also emerging of the discovery in the 1970s of a large number of unidentified remains in a water tank close to the home, leading some to conclude that deceased children were disposed of in the tank without a proper burial or any record keeping of their interment.

“This is turning into a horrific account of maltreatment, neglect and a complete abdication of responsibility for the care of these very vulnerable young children. With each passing day more and more questions emerge, questions which cannot be ignored and need to be answered. I have been in contact over the weekend with both Ministers Fitzgerald and Flanagan to impress upon them the need for an urgent inquiry including a Garda investigation. They have both indicated that they will be meeting with their officials this week and have suggested that a cross departmental approach will be required to determine what is the best way to move forward on this issue.

“Doing nothing is simply not an option for us in Government when presented with details of this nature. We need to proceed with sensitivity but also with efficiency to determine as best we can what happened to these children. They were citizens of this State, they had the same rights as other children, yet they were denied those rights and much more. They were denied love and respect, they were treated almost as a sub-species and no one reached out to put a protective arm around them. And I don’t accept the argument that their deaths can somehow be anonymised on the basis that there were deaths of a similar nature across the country, that this was the nature of the times they lived in. Every child was someone’s son or daughter, every child was an individual deserving of our respect and they were denied that.

“There are some questions that immediately jump out when you begin to look at this case.

·          Who was in charge of this home and where are their records?

·         Who carried out inspections of the home on behalf of the State and where are those records?

           Why did some State inspections describe the children as malnourished when the Bon Secours order was receiving a generous amount per capita from the State to provide for the children?

·          Where are the accounts of those payments and details of how the money was spent?

·          Were dead children disposed of in an underground water tank?

·          Where were the Gardaí in all of this, bearing in mind that the home was in operation up to 1961?  

“These and many other questions need answering and we should be able to follow the example set by the Magdalen inquiry which was completed within 18 months.

“If details had emerged last week of a suspected mass grave of children in any other country, we in Ireland would quite rightly be appalled and would expect to see an inquiry launched immediately. This didn’t happen in any other country; it happened right here on our own doorstep. I applaud those who have proposed to erect a memorial listing the names of those children. However, to really honour the memory of these children we must piece together whatever fragments we have of their terrible experience and tell the real truth behind their demise. That is the very least that they deserve.”