this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2025
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 hours ago

Why? Religion. This all happened because of religion. No oversight from the government, so they did whatever they wanted. Which meant throwing away babies.

Always remember, religion lies. They say how wonderful they ware every second of the day. This is the reality of religion. Death, suffering, and gore. Hidden from the public for as long as possible. Even the title of this article doesn't hold the church accountable for their despicable acts. This is what religion IS. This is what they DO. Never believe what they say.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I don’t know much about mother and baby homes and I didn’t know about this case, so I clicked the article’s link to state apology to learn more. This is so sad.

It estimated 9,000 children, 15% of the total, died – an “appalling” infant mortality rate about double the national average. Neglect, poor food and extreme austerity all played a part. Instead of saving the lives of children legally deemed illegitimate, the homes “significantly reduced their prospects of survival”.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

I don't have the emotional bandwidth to read about this atm...

Anything in there about what the motivations were? Greed (pocketing charitable contributions)? Psychopathy? Religion / mental illness (considering the children an "abomination")?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

The motivation wasn't to protect anyone. It was to control the population. Unwed mothers were seen as the lowest class of society, and were thrown out of society. Why? Religion. Religious assholes today still look down on unwed mothers. So they were sent to the edge of town, put on a work farm/factory and hidden from public view.

When it was time to give birth, they didn't use hospitals. They used their fictional god to protect them. Which resulted in the deaths of many of the women and children. Which were then discarded in the garbage. Because their religion regarded them as garbage. Much as they still do today.

Yeah, religion is mental illness. Look at the assholes here defending it. They're fucking bonkers.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago) (2 children)

The motivation was to protect women, who became pregnant outside of marriage, from becoming outcasts, and giving their children a chance of survival.

A woman who became pregnant outside of marriage in these times had three choices:

  • illegal abortion, with a high risk of death, infertility and imprisonment
  • giving birth and face a life as social outcast for herself and her child
  • "repent", go to a nunnery, give birth there, give up the child who would be raised in an orphanage, and return to society. As a bonus they often got some education in these "homes for fallen maidens", at least in my country.

By the way – a 15 % infant mortality rate sounds terrible to us moderners, but according to the article this was only double the normal infant mortality! This is a very good survival rate for new borns and infants who lost their mothers — this was the age before baby formula diet and antibiotics. We should honour these nuns for saving 85 % of the children rather than bashing them for only having the knowledge and tools of their age.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 hours ago

We should honour these nuns for saving 85 % of the children rather than bashing them for only having the knowledge and tools of their age.

Should we honor them for tossing the dead babies into the septic tank against the mothers wishes, after letting them die from neglect when promising safety, and then hiding the evidence and trying to stop any investigation until very recently?

This wasn't in the 1800s, it didn't end till 1998.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

buried there between 1925 and 1961, some in a disused subterranean septic tank

Burying dead babies in a septic tank, even unused, seems callous.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago

You'd be right, if you didn't so completely understate the judgment. Callous? No. It's not callous.

It's fucking horrible. Despicable. Against every single thing their religion claims on multiple levels. It's a great reason to never, ever, ever let this religion ever practice any religion in their country ever again. That's what it is.

Callous? YOU'RE Callous!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 hours ago

Speaking in the Dáil, the Irish parliament, he did not spare his fellow citizens. “No nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children. We gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns’ care. We gave them up maybe to spare them the savagery of gossip, the wink and the elbow language of delight in which the holier-than-thous were particularly fluent. We gave them up because of our perverse, in fact, morbid relationship with what is called respectability,” he added.

So, as long as you don't kidnap the child, you are free to do whatever with it I guess.