Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

A snapshot in time, by J.P. Rodgers.

Tuam, Ireland, 1947. Catholic Church rules OK. In the Bon Secours hospital, a fallen woman awaits her fate. Verdict - guilty of giving birth out of wedlock. A year later, the child was snatched from its mother's breast while the so-called mad mother, seen as a threat to society, was put into the Magdalen asylum, Galway, never to be seen again. Meanwhile, her loveless, homeless, illegitimate, bastard child lay hidden behind the stone walls of the children's home in Tuam. Ireland's first supermarket where people from England, America, Australia were free to choose an infant of their choice, depending on the size of their wallet. Whilst grubby money changed hands, delicate infants died of dysentery, malnutrition and broken hearts, their shrouded bodies stashed away in some secret vault. I - you too - was an illegitimate child in that children's home and in the eyes of Catholic Ireland, I - you - was not legal. Not legal. Fortunately, I lived to fight another day and to tell the story of your mother's life. On her behalf and on behalf of the unmarried mothers everywhere, I plead - not guilty my Lord.