Good. The discoveries about the Tuam mortality figures are making a stink in Ireland. Good.
There is growing pressure on the Government to hold a full historical inquiry into the deaths of almost 800 children in a mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway between the 1920s and the 1960s.
There were numerous calls from TDs, Senators and councillors yesterday for a full inquiry following the disclosure that many infants and children who died in the home run by the Bon Secours order were buried in an unmarked plot.
Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan said yesterday that he was giving “active consideration to the best means of addressing the harrowing details emerging regarding the burial arrangements for children who died many years ago in mother and baby homes”.
Wait; focus, people. Throwing them out like garbage was bad, yes, but it wasn’t the worst thing. Letting them die was the worst thing. Not taking proper care of them was the worst thing. Taking money from the state to take care of them and not taking care of them was the worst thing.
Yesterday politicians from both Government and Opposition parties, including Galway East Minister of State Ciarán Cannon, called for an inquiry into the circumstances behind so many deaths in the home, as well as into the remains found in the unmarked plot.
There you go, that’s the one. It’s the so many deaths in the home, far more than the mass burial.