Life

Mary Kelly: Churches must have skipped that bit in the gospels about not casting the first stone

Mothers were brought to those homes by desperation, the cruel neglect of the men who had made them pregnant, and by the harsh attitude of their own families, who were more concerned with social standing than common humanity

Flowers and figurines at the memorial to 222 children from the Bethany Mother and Child Home, at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold's Cross, Dublin. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA
Flowers and figurines at the memorial to 222 children from the Bethany Mother and Child Home, at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold's Cross, Dublin. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA Flowers and figurines at the memorial to 222 children from the Bethany Mother and Child Home, at Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold's Cross, Dublin. Picture by Brian Lawless/PA

IF EVER there was a moment for a country to hang its head in shame, it came in the damning indictment of a “cold and callous” Ireland revealed in the Mother and Baby Homes report published earlier this week.

Running to some 3,000 pages, it uncovers a dark chapter in Irish history, where tens of thousands of mothers and their babies were consigned to both state and church institutions where they suffered both material and emotional neglect. Infant mortality was rampant, with some 9,000 deaths recorded between 1922 and 1998.

But mothers were brought to those homes by desperation, the cruel neglect of the men who had made them pregnant, and by the harsh attitude of their own families, who were more concerned with social standing than common humanity.

It reveals a society in the grip of the worst of religious fervour, warped ideas about sexuality and a deep-rooted misogyny that hasn’t been erased from the Catholic Church even yet.

Just this week, the liberally minded Pope Francis couldn’t admit women to even be deacons. Instead a minor change to canon law will allow women to be altar servers and readers – which has already been the practice for many years.

The Mothers and Babies Commission also found some truly heroic people who consistently reported the neglect in the homes. Among them was Alice Lister, an inspector at the Department of Health who visited many of homes up until 1957. She highlighted the overcrowding, poor facilities, lack of antenatal care and the untrained nuns who oversaw the deaths of hundreds of infants, particularly in Bessborough, Co Cork.

One doctor wrote: “The nun in charge of the infants’ department is both stupid and ignorant. The state of the children under her care is so terrible they fail to lessen the queries of child neglect.

"She and all others must be held primarily responsible for the hundreds and hundreds of babies under her charge who have died in the last few years. he must be removed from her post immediately.”

But who was listening to those brave voices? One survivor said no-one stood up for young, vulnerable women.

“Everyone is implicated, from the fathers, to the nuns. For young women, there was nobody to stand up for you, not even your Mam or your Dad.”

One journalist recalled a row of desks in his class was reserved for the “illegitimate children” and other pupils were made to sit with them as a punishment for bad behaviour.

The churches were ultimately responsible for the support and promotion of these social mores that saw “fallen women” and their offspring as sinners who had to be shunned by “decent” society. They must have skipped that bit in the gospels about not casting the first stone.

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SOMETIMES the news from America verges on the surreal. Earlier in the week President Trump issued an emergency order to bolster security in Washington DC for the inauguration – to prevent his own supporters from running riot again.

He’s set to go down in history, not for the reasons he and his creepy family want, but as the only president to be impeached twice. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described him as “deranged, unhinged and dangerous”.

Impeachment is necessary because there is a real danger that he will run again in 2024. Don’t forget 74 million voted for him in November, and they aren’t all red-neck maniacs.

It was an attempted coup and it's not just the Democrats saying so. Even Mitch McConnell has discovered his long-buried conscience to admit Trump’s actions were impeachable.

When I heard that Twitter had initially banned Trump for 24 hours, it recalled the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition sketch where the miscreant was sentenced to a spell in “the Comfy chair”. But then it decided to make the temporary suspension permanent, citing “repeated and severe” violations of its civic integrity policies.

Facebook has taken similar action. But this will only feed the conspiracy theories held by his ardent supporters. Freedom of speech is precious, even when it is in this president’s tiny hands.

I agree with Angela Merkel’s cool assessment that the ban is “problematic”. She believes governments should adopt laws to restrict online incitement, rather than leaving it to private platforms and the whims of their billionaire owners.

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THEY say you can judge a person by the company he keeps. So no real surprise that Ian Paisley claims to be a “friend” of Donald Trump.

While even his erstwhile cheerleaders in the Republican party were so appalled by the scenes in the Capitol building that they finally denounced Trump’s behaviour, Ian Óg rushed to his defence and said he didn’t believe the president had egged on the rioters.

What is it about a megalomaniac leader who spouts fiery rhetoric, leading unthinking mobs to the top of the hill, that so appeals to the member for North Antrim, I wonder?