Ireland has been in a state of turmoil following the discovery of nearly 800 infant remains in a mass grave at Tuam, County Galway. The babies – aged from 35 foetal weeks to two to three years – died between 1925 and 1961, mostly, it is suggested, from infectious diseases or malnutrition.
The site was a “mother and baby” home for unmarried mothers, run by the Bon Secours order – at the behest of the Irish state – and the mass grave may have been subsequently connected to a septic tank built over it, although this claim has not been fully established.
A formal investigation is under way, but in the meantime, the animus against the Irish Catholic Church is more hostile and intense than anything I have ever experienced. When I suggested, on Twitter, that the stern treatment meted out to single mothers from 1925 to 1961 was part of wider social attitudes held by families and by society, as well as by the Church, a torrent of abuse followed. No – only the Catholic Church was responsible, and nothing could excuse their unique cruelty! The Catholic Church was “worse” than the Nazis. The most appalling images of nuns bathing in the blood of dead children were posted on social media.
The story is very distressing, certainly, and the full facts surely need to be examined forensically and impartially. The social truth must also be faced: it was often their own families who consigned pregnant girls to institutions, at a time when there was no social welfare available.
There was also scant effort, it seems, to make the fathers of these infants face up to their responsibilities. In Cork, I was told of a historic case of five unmarried mothers in a local institution – all made pregnant by the same guy, who got off scot-free.
It’s a sad state of affairs that St Patrick’s week brings such a melancholy picture of Irish history – and such ferocious and unrelenting hatred of Irish nuns and the Irish Church.
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It’s probable that some of the worst sectarian violence in the 20th century – as between Hindus and Muslims – took place at the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. There’s a new film about this event, focusing on Lord and Lady Mountbatten, The Viceroy’s House, which I found somewhat weak. Hugh Bonneville reprises his role from Downton Abbey as the good-natured aristocrat, rather than getting to the heart of “Dickie” Mountbatten, a complicated man.
And now a leading historian, Andrew Roberts, says that the film is seriously misleading, and worse: “… historically and politically repugnant, promoting conspiracy theories and peddling vile falsehoods”. Without evidence, it blames Winston Churchill “for the massacres of innocent men, women and children during the partition of India”, and absolves the man primarily responsible – Mountbatten himself.
Roberts claims that Mountbatten unwisely rushed Britain’s departure from the subcontinent, and was blatantly pro-Nehru (for India) and anti-Jinnah (for Pakistan). Mountbatten called Jinnah a “psychopathic case”, a “lunatic” and an “evil genius”.
Roberts has drawn a critical picture of Mountbatten in his compelling book Eminent Churchillians. Films can illuminate truth, but history is usually more complex than portrayed in the movies.
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It’s important that people from other EU countries working in Britain should be fully assured of their entitlement to stay. I hope that right will be copper-fastened by the Government in law and in further Brexit negotiations.
These incomers have made a tremendous contribution to the economy and culture of Britain and, on an anecdotal basis, I observe they have often contributed to an improved standard of civility and good manners – particularly in the catering industry.
British cafeterias and restaurants were not famous for customer-friendly attitudes. Every comic from Peter Sellers to John Cleese has made fun of the reluctant, and occasionally surly, native approach to service. Cleese’s Basil Fawlty portrayed an English hotelier who loathed his clientele.
By contrast, most of the young Continental staff I encounter couldn’t be more courteous and helpful: it’s always “Madam” and “Sir” – so different from Peter Sellers’s skit of the British waitress who answers indifferently to every request: “It’s off, dear!”
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