mass grave of 800 infants found at Galway 'fallen women' home

[marty21]

I spoke to my mum, not about my birth 5 months after the wedding she was saddened but defensive about it (she is very Catholic, 2 of her sisters are nuns, but not those nuns) She said it was city people not country people like her (rural Limerick) and a lot of the cases were probably incest (which wasn't a great defence tbf)

 

[Shechemite]

Sounds delightful

 

[Shechemite]

Speaking of ww1/Local history/institutionalised people. I’m going to shamelessly plug this

Last In Line: The Forgotten Learning Disabled Soldiers of World War One – Byline Times

Saba Salman explores how a century of prejudice still finds echoes today in the treatment of people with learning disabilities during the Coronavirus pandemic

bylinetimes.com

 

[mx wcfc]

I spoke to my mum, not about my birth 5 months after the wedding.......

There have been studies done of parish records (in England) a hundred/two hundred or so years ago. Huge numbers of first born kids were born less than 9 months after their parents married. It was almost normal.

I was born out of wedlock in 1963. It was a much bigger deal even then in the UK than it is now. My mother very nearly gave me up for adoption, due to the problems she faced.

That Irish Examiner front page is awful though. Makes me relieved that I was born a bastard in England, and not Ireland.

 

[krtek a houby]

Speaking of ww1/Local history/institutionalised people. I’m going to shamelessly plug this

Last In Line: The Forgotten Learning Disabled Soldiers of World War One – Byline Times

Saba Salman explores how a century of prejudice still finds echoes today in the treatment of people with learning disabilities during the Coronavirus pandemic

bylinetimes.com

Important as this information is; it perhaps deserves a separate thread of it's own?

 

[Shechemite]

I like the idea of history of institutions as local history

 

[Rebelda]

It’s only just occurred to me how revolting the word “illegitimate” is when applied to people. The whole notion that “illegitimate children” could somehow not be legitimately considered proper people. Ugh.

It's heinous and it hasn't gone away. Someone said it about my baby when I was pregnant, so in a year that started with 20, then passed it off as 'joking' when they got an appalled reaction. I'll never forget. I swear to god my daughter has the personality she does just to spite the person

Ugh I jest because this whole topic makes me I'd have started my life in one of those places and so would my kid. Bullshit review as well. Tell me it gets better than 'they had no alternative but they weren't forced' ffs

 

[Red Cat]

That's shocking Rebelda

My dad was born in 1944 in Liverpool, his father was a GI. My dad was then neglected by his mum and brought up by his grandmother. The family weren't catholic but Liverpool was and is very Irish catholic. His uncle, who lived in the same house, married a catholic and it seems the priest was over involved in their marriage, what a terrible thing she'd done marrying a protestant, and they rowed all the time. I don't know if my dad's 'illegitimate' status was a factor in that too, it makes me wonder reading all this. He doesn't really talk about it but he hates the catholic church with a passion.

 

[flypanam]

My piss is boiled.

I’m just reading the report now, I’m raging that one of the most pro establishment historians in the country helped write it. Mary Daly would have to be involved in ensuring the the orders, the hierarchy, FFG and the state get let of the hook.

 

[Idris2002]

Caelainn Hogan, in today's Irish Times:

"Priests and social workers both told me that working class families in Dublin would often find ways to support their daughters or take in their children but wealthy farming families in the country would disown them".

In other words - Engels was right.

 

[Idris2002]

One of the big things that pressure will have to be put on and maintained is the children's right to access their birth records and birth certificates.

Even on the "knowing where you come from" principle. An aunt of mine had a child out of wedlock, before she met my uncle, and had to give the boy up for adoption.

A couple of years ago he tracked my uncle's family down: by this time my aunt had already passed away unfortunately. But he's coming to all the family events now, lockdowns permitting.

His adoptive sister had a different experience. Her birth family shut the door on her, when she found them.

 

[petee]

i had an aunt who disappeared from the record around 1919, 1920. my father never mentioned her, nor any aunt or uncle on that side. i heard of her from a cousin who said that she'd gotten pregnant, and i looked into the census and there she was. the last time i was over i spent an afternoon in the National Library where i was given very helpful assistance, as far as it could go. i see in the report that "mother and baby homes" is lower-case; i've been used to hearing "Magdalene Laundries", and there was another term which i have written down somewhere, a name for homes run by methodists iirc. the first thing i discovered is that there will be no help in tracing any individual. i would have a first cousin who would be about 100 now and it's not impossible that s/he is still with us. (the Justice for Magdalenes website appears redesigned and expanded since i last visited, perhaps there'll be more info there now.)

the table of contents lists two chapters "the situation before 1922" and "county clare nursery", so i'll be having a look into those.