Catherine Corless

What can you tell us about the film, and why do you think it's such an important watch?

Yeah, so The Lost Children of Tuam was directed by Frank Berry, and it follows the story of Galway historian Catherine Corless as she researches, researches the Tuam mother and baby home in 2010.

So basically, she finds the death records of 796 infants and children with no matching burial records.

So it's, it's a very important watch because while it highlights the atrocities of the Tuam mother and baby homes, it also shows Catherine's persistence and relentlessness in discovering the truth.

Like, I went to see it with a sold-out screening, and people were kind of scoffing and getting very vocally upset.

And first, I was kind of like the, the, like, cinema goer in me was a bit like, "Why are people talking during this?" But then as I started to get into it, I was like, actually, so many people in this room have, like, heard about this story for so long and have been appalled by it that it was actually really powerful and moving to see, like, a group of people coming together to watch something.

And the film very much told the story very responsibly because even Catherine Corless herself was very involved with the filming process, and that adds to the credibility as well, I think.

Yeah, definitely one that I'm aiming to see this weekend myself.

It hit headlines worldwide in 2014.

That woman's name is Catherine Corless.

She is now widely recognized as one of modern Ireland's most celebrated and tireless human rights campaigners.

Here's Catherine speaking to Nula in 2024 and reflecting on the scale of the scandal.

Yes

... and sometimes not able to return.

Uh, Monica, I was mentioning Catherine Corless there.

Yeah.

As, speaking of films and, uh, movies and, uh, the like, just last month, uh, The Last Children of Tuam, uh, was released in Irish cinemas.

Basically, it's, uh, the story, I suppose, of Catherine Corless and, uh, her work and her investigations.

Um, how was that received among your, your members, and has it brought the story to a wider audience, Breda?

I think it, it most certainly, uh, will bring the story to a wi-wider audience.

The home was operated by the Bon Secours sisters on behalf of the Irish government.

The case gained international attention after local historian Catherine Corless discovered death records for 796 children, but found no corresponding burial records.

A 2017 investigation later identified significant human remains in underground chambers on the property.

The sisters have contributed more than $2.8 million towards the excavation, and they've previously apologized for burial practices described as disrespectful and unacceptable.

You may remember we broadcast a special program about the hundreds of babies and young children who died in the care of the nuns who ran the home there.

The actor Monica Dolan plays Catherine Corless, an extraordinary woman who has been fighting for justice.

Monica will be here alongside Alison O'Reilly, a journalist who helped Catherine get the story out to the world.

Also, the broadcaster Ashley James has opened up about the shame and stigma surrounding incontinence, which she has suffered from since having a traumatic birth.

One of those was an amateur historian whose relentless pursuit of the truth helped to bring the story of hundreds of babies from a mother and baby home being disposed of in a disused sewage tank that hit the headlines worldwide in 2014.

And I do understand this is a distressing story, and I should let you know about that, uh, before we get into some more of the details.

But the woman, one of the women, that I met who was the amateur historian, that was Catherine Corless.

She is now widely recognized as one of modern Ireland's most celebrated and tireless human rights campaigners.

The second building was where it was carried out, and then there is the ground beneath the compounds, the part that was never meant to surface.

In 2012, Catherine Corless, a local historian in County Galway, published an article about the former St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home in Tuam.

She had traced death certificates naming the institution as the place of death.

She paid four euros per certificate.

The Bon Secours sisters who operated the home initially hired a public relations firm.

The firm denied a mass grave existed.

Catherine Corless had already published the death certificates.

She had paid for them herself because no institution, no government agency, and no religious order had ever requested them.

That's it from me.

On Monday's program, Nula will be speaking to Monica Dolan, who stars in a new film, The Lost Children of Cheomh, playing the woman who uncovered the scandal in Ireland, Catherine Corless.

She's joined by Alison O'Reilly, the journalist who broke the story in 2014.

Don't forget to join her, 10:00 AM on Monday.

Of course, it's not a secret anymore, you know, because one day, it's kinda interesting, as I was researching this intergenerational trauma and the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual ramifications, I stumbled across another story, a story of Tuam, County Galway, in Ireland, where there had been a discovery of approximately 800 remains of babies buried in a mass grave.

And I reached out to Catherine Corless.

Yeah, she's just a well-known historian over there, known for her work compiling information concerning the deaths of children at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway County.

And she said, "Hey, if you're ever in the neighborhood, I'd be glad to meet you." I was like, "Well, yeah, let me just, you know, just jump [chuckles] on my private jet and get over there." But anyway, I, I squirreled away some money, and I was able to go over there because I wanted to see for myself.