Recorded December 7, 2018.
Listen back to this ‘In Conversation’ with Catherine Corless who was interviewed by Professor of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin, Aoife Mc Lysaght.
As a family historian researching in her own time and without any university affiliation, Catherine Corless has worked on a particular, and shameful, aspect of Irish history, namely the “Mother and Baby Homes”. Her work in gathering information on the institution in Tuam, Co. Galway, has revealed patterns of the mistreatment of individuals, both adult women and their infants, under de facto incarceration. Though local people may have been aware of the conditions, the absence of records and hard data allowed the hierarchy of these institutions and the state to ignore or deny the extent or even the existence of the mistreatment and incarceration. Catherine Corless meticulously collected records of births, deaths and burials, which ultimately lead to the uncovering of a mass grave in the location of the septic tank system. This meant that the shameful history of the institution could no longer be ignored.
Catherine Corless’s work required careful collection and cross-referencing of records. When she requested records from the Western Health Boards and from the Bon Secours Sisters (who ran the institution) she was told that they had none. She was informed that because she had no university qualification or affiliation the local county council were also unwilling to give her the records she needed. Ultimately, she requested records of deaths at the home from the Galway registry. There were 796 such deaths but no burial records.
She has shed light on this Irish institution, while establishing an all too familiar pattern that was not unique to Tuam. Her work has been key to forcing the recognition of the mistreatment of innocent individuals in these institutions and as such is an important agent of social change in Ireland.
Learn more at: https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/
