1mo ago

Preparatory work to identify remains of 800 infants at Irish mother and baby home begins

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1mo ago

Preparatory work to identify remains of 800 infants at Irish mother and baby home begins | Ireland

www.theguardian.com /world/2025/jun/16/preparatory-work-to-identify-remains-of-800-infants-at-irish-mother-and-baby-home-begins

14 comments

I don’t know much about mother and baby homes and I didn’t know about this case, so I clicked the article’s link to state apology to learn more. This is so sad.
It estimated 9,000 children, 15% of the total, died – an “appalling” infant mortality rate about double the national average. Neglect, poor food and extreme austerity all played a part. Instead of saving the lives of children legally deemed illegitimate, the homes “significantly reduced their prospects of survival”.
- I don't have the emotional bandwidth to read about this atm...
  Anything in there about what the motivations were? Greed (pocketing charitable contributions)? Psychopathy? Religion / mental illness (considering the children an "abomination")?
  
  The motivation wasn't to protect anyone. It was to control the population. Unwed mothers were seen as the lowest class of society, and were thrown out of society. Why? Religion. Religious assholes today still look down on unwed mothers. So they were sent to the edge of town, put on a work farm/factory and hidden from public view.
  When it was time to give birth, they didn't use hospitals. They used their fictional god to protect them. Which resulted in the deaths of many of the women and children. Which were then discarded in the garbage. Because their religion regarded them as garbage. Much as they still do today.
  Yeah, religion is mental illness. Look at the assholes here defending it. They're fucking bonkers.
  
  The motivation was to protect women, who became pregnant outside of marriage, from becoming outcasts, and giving their children a chance of survival.
  A woman who became pregnant outside of marriage in these times had three choices:
  illegal abortion, with a high risk of death, infertility and imprisonment
  giving birth and face a life as social outcast for herself and her child
  "repent", go to a nunnery, give birth there, give up the child who would be raised in an orphanage, and return to society. As a bonus they often got some education in these "homes for fallen maidens", at least in my country.
  By the way – a 15 % infant mortality rate sounds terrible to us moderners, but according to the article this was only double the normal infant mortality! This is a very good survival rate for new borns and infants who lost their mothers — this was the age before baby formula diet and antibiotics. We should honour these nuns for saving 85 % of the children rather than bashing them for only having the knowledge and tools of their age.
Why? Religion. This all happened because of religion. No oversight from the government, so they did whatever they wanted. Which meant throwing away babies.
Always remember, religion lies. They say how wonderful they ware every second of the day. This is the reality of religion. Death, suffering, and gore. Hidden from the public for as long as possible. Even the title of this article doesn't hold the church accountable for their despicable acts. This is what religion IS. This is what they DO. Never believe what they say.
- Want to ruin your day? Read about opus dei
- Think bigger.
  This is what sometimes happens when you give people power without controlling for outcomes (vulgo: without oversight).
  Everything else is circumstantial. It can be a religious context, but it doesnt have to be. Bad things have happened in state-run institutions, in foster homes, in prisons, in families - wherever there is a power imbalance that goes unchecked.
Speaking in the Dáil, the Irish parliament, he did not spare his fellow citizens. “No nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children. We gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns’ care. We gave them up maybe to spare them the savagery of gossip, the wink and the elbow language of delight in which the holier-than-thous were particularly fluent. We gave them up because of our perverse, in fact, morbid relationship with what is called respectability,” he added.
So, as long as you don't kidnap the child, you are free to do whatever with it I guess.

14 comments