Infant deaths: Nothing secret about contempt for mothers and children

The record of Dáil debates reveals that there was both official and public awareness of the plight of children born to single mothers in Ireland, writes Elaine Byrne.

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It’s the simplicity of the language that strikes you the most. The naked contempt in the Dáil and Seanad speeches and official reports, which casually brutalises them with the words used to describe children.

Bastard. It. Illegitimate. Not ordinary.

The consequence of birth outside ...