The Sisters of Bon Secours who ran the Tuam Mother and Baby's Home for almost 40 years said last evening that they did not live up to their Christianity when doing so, adding that they also acknowledge that the manner in which infants were buried at the home was deeply disrespectful.
Their statement came just as Taoiseach Micheal Martin apologised for the failure of the State in preventing “a profound generational wrong visited on Irish mothers and their children who ended up in a mother and baby home or county home.”
Mr Martin's apology came after the Commission of Investigation into the homes published a 2,865-page report, which confirmed that 9,000 children – one in seven in the institutions – died in the 18 homes under investigation.
He said the report offers an opportunity for moment for us as a society to recognise a profound failure of empathy, understanding and basic humanity over a very lengthy period.
'We failed to offer them the compassion'
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Speaking on behalf of the Ben Secours sisters, Area Leader Sr Eileen O’Connor said that the order did not live up to its Christianity when running the home in Tuam.
"We failed to offer them the compassion that they so badly needed. We were part of the system in which they suffered hardship, loneliness and terrible hurt. We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the Home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way. For all that, we are deeply sorry,” she said.
Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary also apologised for the failure of the Church to not act with compassion.
He said that the report contents are “a cause for shame as we are confronted in our very recent history with the scandalous way in which vulnerable women and children in our society were deprived of care and dignity and subjected to humiliation.”
