Colin Murphy: Ireland was abusing its unwed mothers even before there was Church and state collusion
Twentieth-century Ireland was one of the most repressive sexual cultures in the world. Much of that is on the Catholic Church, but not all of it
In February 1935 the parish priest in Westport wrote to the Archbishop of Tuam to report that a local girl had had an “illegitimate” child. The baby had died within days, from natural causes. “A denunciation will take place on Sunday next,” he informed his superior.
That denunciations from the altar happened is not news. But to denounce a young woman – who may herself, as his language indicated, have been legally a child – ...
