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It was confirmed on March 3rd 2017 that the skeletal remains of baby’s, infants and toddlers, which lay unknown and in many cases forgotten for decades, have been finally uncovered on the site of a Mother and Baby Home in Tuam.
The official website for the Mother and Baby Homes Investigation can be found HERE
Those involved in the investigation, on behalf of the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes have stated that a significant number of children’s remains, dating back to the years during which time the home remained operational, have been located. Some infants are thought to have passed on from debility suffered at birth, while others succumbed to respiratory infection and premature birth.
It is understood that these young infant victims could have also died in a number of cases from influenza, while measles and chickenpox could have contributed to death in others. Just a small number of deaths were possibly attributed to malnutrition, while health issues; trivial in today’s world, such as ear infections, skin diseases, and whooping cough also contributed; as did meningitis, gastroenteritis, convulsions, congenital heart disease and congenital syphilis.
Certainly tuberculous bacillus (TB) was rampant during this period, with children making up more than half of the victims. This highly infectious disease thrived in crowded situations and in poorly ventilated buildings even in the country. It was not until the 1950’s that TB began to decline and by the 1970’s it had almost completely vanished from our shores.
Surely it must be observed as somewhat strange (or perhaps even hypocritical), that on reading this sad and most disturbing news, so many of the commentators on the Tuam babies scandal who remain rightly concerned about a respectful burial for these human remains; same also want to remove the existing constitutional protection and the right to life, from their modern day colleagues with fatal foetal anomalies, or limited prospects of a full life-span, or conceived as a result of rape or incest. Remember the report of the official Commission of Investigation mentions that the sample of remains that they examined range from 35 foetal weeks to 2-3 years, which would seemingly include still-born and perinatal infants.
While we remain arguing over what road we should take with regard to our future unborn children, we, over recent years, have shown similarly total disregard for those vulnerable and let’s admit that in today’s Ireland we can no longer place blame on the ‘Great Famine’, the Church and the Nuns.
Following the closing of the home in 1961, all records then held were handed over to Galway County Council. Were Galway County Council not aware of the burial grounds before any planning permissions for housing were granted in that immediate area?
Following the painstaking research undertaken by historian M/s Catherine Corless, the names of some 796 children who died in the Tuam institution between the years 1925 and 1960 inclusive, can be found hereunder.
Continue reading Mother & Baby Homes Commission Of Investigation
“It’s just one man’s opinion, but it’s my opinion and I reserve the right, above all others, to hold that opinion.”
The movement to ‘Repeal the Eighth Amendment’ is certainly gathering momentum, and various categories of unborn babies are facing an increasing prospect of being legally aborted within Ireland. The law already allows the abortion of the children of suicidal mothers (subject to certification by three professionals that the case comes within the parameters of the Protection of Life in Pregnancy Act 2013), and the danger of abortion is extended by the same Act to children of mothers whose lives are in danger from the pregnancy in the opinion of two professionals in ordinary cases, or just one in emergency cases.
 Ms Justice Mary Laffoy Chairperson of the 100-member convention taxed with considering issues including the Eighth Amendment. The protagonists of the ‘Repeal’ campaign aim to further extend legal abortion in Ireland to other tragic cases, for example, unborn children suffering from a fatal foetal anomaly, anencephaly, various chromosomal or genetic anomalies, and to children conceived through rape or incest. Other ‘Repealers’, depending on the extent of their liberalism, would extend a right of abortion to the mothers of any or all children regarded by their mothers as flawed, unhealthy, unwanted or inconvenient.
It is argued by the protagonists of the ‘Repeal the Eighth’ that this repeal will free the legislators from the restrictions of the Eighth Amendment and enable them to enact laws to cater for these needy cases. But the question remains ‘will it’?
Where do lawmakers get their authority to enact laws anyway? Most people and most democratic constitutions would say that the power of the legislature to make laws comes to them from the people. But are there limits to the powers the people may grant to the legislature? The theory of parliamentary supremacy (or “legal positivism”) would hold that there is no limitation on the laws Parliament may enact. As Sir Leslie Stephen explained in this theory in his book ‘The Science of Ethics’: “If a legislature decided that all blue-eyed babies should be murdered, the preservation of blue-eyed babies would be illegal”.
But differently from many other constitutions, the Irish Constitution in Article 6 says that “All powers of government, legislative, executive and judicial, derive, under God, from the people…”. These words “under God” were deliberately added to ensure that the Irish constitution would not be guilty of the absurdity to which the theory of absolute parliamentary supremacy leads. The Dáil is not omnipotent, but is subject to the law of God.
The awkward fact for atheists, agnostics, the lapsed, and those in the Dáil who haven’t read article 6 of the Irish Constitution, is that those who did write it and the majority who enacted it in 1937, mostly believed in God, and gave the Dáil no power to enact laws which are contrary to the law of God. When God said “Thou shalt not kill”, the consequence of Article 6 is that no TD, no Seanadóir, no Judge, no Doctor shall kill or authorise the killing of any innocent unborn child.
So, surely before they repeal the eighth Amendment (or Article 40, s.3, 3° which it inserted into the Constitution), abortion advocates need to surely repeal or amend Article 6, and also perhaps paganise or at least de-Christianise that Preamble to Bunreacht na hÉireann whose first words are “In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority…”.
Tipperary Wind Farm Planning Decision Referred To Europe By Supreme Court
The Supreme Court, having considered a challenge against An Bord Pleanála’s decision to grant planning permission for an electricity generating wind farm in Co Tipperary, have ruled that this case does raise issues of public importance.
The initial challenge refers to a ten year permission, granted by An Bord Pleanála, to ESB Wind Development and Coillte; to construct a wind farm in the area of Keeper Hill in the Silvermines Mountains in Co Tipperary.
 Hen Harrier (Picture courtesy Mr Shay Connolly, Bird Watch Ireland) The Supreme Court applicants had claimed that the permission granted breached EU Habitats and Environment Impact Assessment Directives and would contribute to the loss of some 400 acres of foraging for Hen Harrier, if and when this same wind farm was progressed.
Previously the High Court had dismissed the case of M/s Edel Grace of Grousehall Milestone, Thurles, Co Tipperary and Environmental Consultant Mr Peter Sweetman of Bunnahowen, Cashel, Co Galway, in their action.
The Supreme Court however now want the EU (CJEU) Court of Justice to determine European law issues, before ruling whether An Bord Pleanála properly assessed the impact of this Co. Tipperary wind farm on the habitat of these hen harriers, latter a protected species under EU law.
The important joint Supreme Court judgement on Friday last, before a seven-judge Supreme Court which included Mr Justice Frank Clarke and Ms Justice Iseult O’Malley, concluded that M/s Grace did have standing in her appeal. The fact that she had not participated in the planning process and resided less than one kilometre from the special protection area (SPA), did not deprive her of standing. The Supreme Court therefore agreed to refer certain issues to the CJEU concerning the procedure adopted by An Bord Pleanála. These precise issues have as yet not been described, but same are expected to be set out later.
“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals”. [George Orwell, Animal Farm.]
What now makes the European Court challenge by M/s Edel Grace, Grousehall, Milestone, Thurles, Co Tipperary so important?
 Should a wind turbine be installed on the ‘Stiletto in the Ghetto’, in O’Connell Street, Dublin, to further improve renewable energy sources? Some 32 farmers in Co. Tipperary availed of payments last year for their involvement in taking the necessary measures to protect the endangered Hen Harrier bird species; known romantically as “Sky Dancers” because of their skilled and elaborate aerial displays.
During the last five years well over €10m in funding was paid out to farmers in the form of compensation payments. Indeed it was a farmer in Co. Tipperary who received the single largest payment (€14,594) for the granting of this special protection. But an even bigger scandal is recognised when the latest Hen Harrier population figures are released.
Same figures indicate that there reside only an average of about 125 breeding Hen Harrier pairs left in Ireland. This figure registers a decline of over 33% since 2000 or a decline of almost 9% in 2016, despite the birds having being offered paid special protection since 2010. (Imagine what Focus Ireland could have achieved with this €10m funding, equal to over €8,000.00 per breeding bird pair over this same 5 year period).
What also makes this European challenge by M/s Edel Grace therefore important is not necessarily the wanton destruction by An Bord Pleanála to beautiful rural Tipperary landscapes; but rather that wind farms in rural areas are now being granted planning permission in EU funded Hen Harrier breeding areas, supposedly set up and funded to offer protection. This so called EU protection, together with the burning of moorland is recognised as being the root cause; seriously effecting the Irish Hen Harrier population through the removal of natural breeding habitats and naturally occurring mammal feeding grounds.
“He that giveth unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hideth his eyes shall have many a curse.” – Proverbs 28:27.
During the current year, 2016, we celebrated the one hundred year of our struggle for Irish independence, with at least some €22 million, minimum, in taxpayer funding, spent in various ways, but mainly in the areas, both in and around, Sackville Street, today better known as O’Connell Street; Dublin’s main thoroughfare.
 Travelling through Dublin in recent weeks, one could not help but notice the number of homeless people begging and sleeping rough in the streets of this same city. By sleeping rough I mean men and women of all ages sleeping or bedded down in the freezing open air, seeking refuge in filthy doorways, parks and bus shelters; people sleeping in buildings or other places not designed for human habitation e.g. car parks, living what now appears to be the socially acceptable “Plastic Bag” and “Wet Cardboard” lifestyle.
A headcount taken in our Capital’s city centre area recently found 168 people were sleeping rough with this figure not including some 60 people sharing a floor in the Merchant’s Quay Night Cafe and an unknown number of persons bedded down, hidden from immediate sight in the 1752 acres of the Phoenix Park, latter containing ‘Áras an Uachtaráin’, the residence currently occupied by the head of State and President of our ‘Emerald Green Island’.
Now towards the end of 2016, following our 100 year commemorations / celebrations; call them what you will; it would appear our current minority Fine Gael government have failed dismally to adhere to the very ideals of Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins. Where now in 2016 are spoken the words of Collins; quote; “For the future, we must not have the destitution of poverty at one end, and at the other, an excess of riches”?
So also our rapidly diminishing so called Irish Labour Party, which propped up the outgoing Fine Gael government over the previous 5 years. They too, in their greed for power, have overlooked the accurate prophesy in the words spoken by their once executed associate James Connolly, quote: “If you remove the English army tomorrow, unless you set about the organisation of a Socialist Republic, she will still continue to rule you through her Capitalists, through her Landlords, through her Financiers“.
Current statements like “no person will be on the streets unless they want to be” are no longer acceptable from those who were elected to rule over us. When will the practice of allowing those refusing shelter; sleeping on mattresses of wet cardboard; wrapped in discarded plastic bags, cease? I say this in the knowledge of the problems within homeless shelters, due to individuals having complex drink and drug related struggles. Accept it; people lying in doorways do not feel safe in sheltered accommodation, while forced to sleep, wearing footwear on their feet; in the sure and certain knowledge if they do not, their shoes, together with other meagre possessions, will be stolen by morning.
What would it cost our government, (who knowingly amongst other unnecessary spending, used an estimated €27 million of taxpayers money, on a postal code system, namely Eircode, which possibly will never be wholly used), to provide one warm coat, a pair of stout shoes and a one-person tent that can be compressed into a portable bag (See picture above), to a mere couple of hundred rough sleepers at most?
If we see ourselves as Christians, surly it is time to examine and act immediately on the urgent and very basic needs of a few people who, for whatever reason, choose to sleep rough in conditions, (dare I say unfit for an animal), exposing themselves to the current freezing winter conditions, being experienced over recent weeks, on the streets of our cities.
“Take heed and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” – St. Luke 12:15
The massive disparity separating Urban and Rural communities continues to expand.
The Mid West Region represents an area spanning 8,248 km², taking in the geographical borders of the combined counties of Clare, Limerick, & North Tipperary. The population of these 3 areas, according to the most recent information taken on Census night 2016, are officially recorded as:- Co. Clare – 118,627 persons, Limerick – 195,175 persons (Inc. Limerick city) and North Tipperary – 71,370 persons. Total population for the Mid West Region can therefore be calculated as containing some 385,172 residents.
 National Ambulance Service Review The Siren Study set up to evaluate the development and performance of different emergency and urgent care systems (EUCS) has show that medical patient survival rates for emergency cases, in this same Mid West Region, are among the lowest in the country.
The findings of this study undertaken by University Collage Cork (UCC), which compared patient admission and outcome figures for 2000-2006 and 2007-2012, suggested that if every County had the same death rate for emergency conditions as Dublin, up to one thousand lives per year could be saved.
While admitting that fatality rates have dropped nationally during the past 10 years, the disparity still remaining between the regions continues to dwell significant.
Dublin currently has six emergency departments for a population of 1.2 million people. If the same A&E model was in place in the Mid West Region were to be used in Dublin there would only be three emergency departments available in our capital.
The excessive waiting times for ambulances and the requirement for all emergency cases to be taken to University Hospital Limerick (UHL) is acknowledged as having been a likely cause of death in a number of past emergency medical cases.
The original reasoning behind the development of a ‘Centre of Excellence’ in Limerick certainly showed some merit, as in the centralising of certain expertise and services. However based on the current demand for services alone, (UHL) at this present time is not ‘fit for need’, and to-date has not been sufficiently upgraded in the aftermath of the initial decision to downgrade Nenagh General Hospital.
Based on projected population increases alone the people of North Tipperary, in particular, continue to allow themselves to be treated as second-class citizens. Promises made to provide a new accident and emergency (A&E) department at University Hospital Limerick following the downgrading of both Ennis and Nenagh General Hospitals has now been delayed by a further two months according to confirmation by the UL Hospitals Group recently.
Their excuse “It is more important to get it right than to open too soon without the proper systems and safeguards in place”, is no longer acceptable. Building contractors, engaged at University Hospital Limerick, are due to hand over this new project at the end of the first quarter in 2017, and between 90 and 100 additional staff are being targeted for the new department, in a recruitment drive that is supposedly currently under way. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) however have expressed concerns over the likelihood of securing such medical staff in the immediate future.
Not for the first time over the last few months and in the case of UHL, yesterday showed same to be the busiest A&E in Ireland, with 36 patients reported as waiting to be provided with the luxury of a bed on a ward. To add further to this misery; fears have been expressed over the continued provision of the essential rapid response emergency ambulance services for Tipperary and Clare. The National Ambulance Service (NAS) have confirmed they are reviewing the provision of rapid response vehicles in both counties with a view to discontinuing at least some already existing services.
Back in 2009, as part of a HSE reconfiguration of hospital services, which supervised the closure of Nenagh’s A&E departments to a daytime only operation; ambulances staffed by advanced paramedic staff, specially trained in advanced life support skills and drugs administration were introduced into the Mid-West instead. This same service was touted by the HSE as ‘Tipperary’s A&E on the Road’. We were informed then, and foolishly accepted as fact, that this service was to be “A natural progression in the enhancement and development of the ambulance service in North Tipperary”.
While the HSE confirm that this review has only recently commenced and that no decision will be made until all aspects of the Mid West Review is finalised; North Tipperary needs to be aware. After all just some weeks ago our County Councillors were discussing raising Property Tax in Co Tipperary. Perhaps it’s now time to sell up or accept the fact that you will die, not as a result of any medical condition such as a heart attack, but as a result of remaining to reside in a long forgotten rural North Tipperary.
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