The fruits of theocracy: 800 children in a septic tank

It was not particularly unusual.

Mass graves and unmarked graves and unmarked mass graves were as common in Ireland as the rest of the world following the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1919, and were pretty standard at places like insane asylums and pauper's hospitals. At the height of that particular pandemic something approaching 80% of the population in Ireland either was or had been sick; and the disease, for reasons known only to itself, killed mainly the 20-30 year old demographic-- which would normally have been the folks doing the digging and marking.

Pretty sure when this particular institution went into bidness in the 20's, the context was one in which unmarked and collective burial was not particularly shocking, just practical...

 

Well, these weren't mass graves, nor unmarked graves. This was dumping into a tank.

Awful as it is, people just can't imagine the poverty in Ireland during the Depression.
One of a million similar stories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela's_Ashes
"Frank McCourt lived in New York with his parents and four younger siblings ... a younger sister, Margaret, ... died seven weeks after birth, in 1935. Following this first tragedy, his family moved back to Ireland where the twin brothers, Oliver and Eugene, died within a year of the family's arrival and where Frank's youngest brothers ... were born. ...
Life in Ireland ... during the 1930s and 1940s is described in all its grittiness. The family lived in a dilapidated, unpaved lane of houses that flooded regularly ... near the only outdoor lavatory for the entire lane. ... The McCourt children had insufficient clothing and shoes, and suffered in the damp, cold climate of Ireland. Frank developed typhoid fever and was hospitalized, where for the first time he had adequate food and warmth. ... The family was finally evicted after they took a hatchet to the walls of their rented home to burn the wood for heat. ... went to the Christian Brothers to inquire about further schooling for Frank, they slammed the door in his face."
When the film was made, I recall reading that they had trouble finding locations desolate enough to film, as fortunately, things have improved so much in Ireland that almost all poor neighborhoods have been demolished.

 

I guess this would be a good place to leave this on the Canadian Indian Residential School System & specifically, it's operation by churches on behalf of the Government of Canada.

This is proof positive that religion & government MUST be separated. As bad as the BIA (Assimilation) School system was in the US from the 1870 - 1980's, it pales in comparison to what happened in Canada.

 

I'm not sure how I missed this thread first time around, but all I can say is that I'm feeling pissy right now.

 

The right response would be to disinter the remains, attempt to identify them (something very doable with current DNA processes and the likelihood of living relatives), and bury them following a funeral mass in a Catholic cemetery created specifically as a memorial to these victims.

And the Pope should officiate, and if any surviving family members are alive, he should get on his knees and beg forgiveness for this crime against humanity.

That's what should happen.

 

On a related note, nuns always creeped me out. Like how some people have a fear of clowns. I cannot even imagine the hell they put those women & kids through. They were running what amounted to an Irish concentration camp for "sluts"

Another thing I recall from Angela's Ashes was the haughty attitude the Church had with parishioners. What happened at the women's home was entirely predictable back then. The Church was basically infallible and the government always had their backs. McCourt never forgave or forgot how they would kick down at the Limerick poors for their "unfortunate situation"

 

Then they moved to America and became the precursors of the modern Republican party...



I guess that they view the poor as deserving of their own faith, after all, if God thought they deserved better, they'd make them rich GOP donors or politicians.

 

Unfettered power corrupts in any large organization. The Irish are getting more "European" in matters of faith for the past several decades. Calling someone a Papist today would probably result in a shrug...whatever

 

Carlisle was the model for the assimilation program

 

I've only been in Canada long enough to go through Windsor and almost get blown off the Hamilton Skyway, so most of what I know is second hand from people up right by the border. Canada seems to have a REALLY big problem with FN women disappearing and no one really looking all that hard for them.

 

Christian Brothers "Sold Children Into Slavery"