Rónán Mullen (Independent)

I spoke yesterday about my concern about the religious orders' interactions with the State and the need for them to be very careful about being bullied by the State in the context of future redress arrangements concerning not abuse in schools, which is a very separate thing, but what happened in mother and baby homes. I do not suggest that there is not a case in some cases for redress but I am very troubled. I read this morning an excellent article by John McGuirk on Gript about the Tuam babies and the whole cultural narrative being presented around that. I have heard of no credible suggestion or evidence of foul play and heard of no finding by any commission about deliberate neglect. I have heard a whole lot of doubt about how and when a structure that may have had a connection with a sewerage system at some point in the past came to be used as a repository for some children's bones. I suspect I am one of many silent dissenters from the idea that the State should be digging up and examining the bones of long-deceased infants who were unfortunate enough in life to begin with and concerning whom no credible claims of foul play or deliberate neglect have been made, to my knowledge. I have secular friends who dismiss the exercise as a waste of money. It would not be a waste of money if there were a real and honest purpose, but how realistic is it to expect that this long forensic exercise will unearth any significant fact that will lead to justice for any person, living or dead? Some see it as the State giving into performative politics or maybe catering to the asks of people who have been hurt in life in some way connected with the homes, and I understand that. I also wonder about the role of public commentators who are anti-Catholic and who want to ferment public rejection of Irish Catholic heritage and culture. Is that in play here?

I am interested in the truth, but the truth is complex and textured. Every time I hear RTÉ talk about a disused sewage tank, I know what that is contributing to in people's minds, and it has very little to do with a broad understanding of historical reality. It is for that reason that I ask that we have a respectful debate in the autumn. I know it is irrevocable at this stage that this forensic exercise is going on, and I hope it leads to facts that will bring justice to some person living or dead, but I really doubt it. We should have a discussion about the Tuam babies, the narrative around it, the role of the State, the way the State is acting on this, the type of motivations it appears to have and the way it publicly expresses its policy around this because I am not sure that justice is being done in the present in connection with the realities of the past.