Becky Milligan tells the story of how one woman, in her sixties, discovered a secret which lay beneath the ground of an old Mother and Baby Home in the west of Ireland. Standing up to the state, church and local opposition, she doggedly went on until she found out the truth. It is a moving and shocking story which sparked headlines around the world.
Becky Milligan tells the story of how one woman, in her sixties, discovered a secret which lay beneath the ground of an old Mother and Baby Home in the west of Ireland. Standing up to the state, church and local opposition, she doggedly went on until she found out the truth. It is a moving and shocking story which sparked headlines around the world.
Becky Milligan continues her series about a former home for unmarried mothers in Tuam in the West of Ireland, and the work of amateur historian Catherine Corless. Catherine's discoveries prompted the Irish Government to begin an investigation into mother and baby homes across Ireland.
In Episode Eight Becky tries to find out how the Catholic church responds to the story, and she meets a retired social worker, who served as a nun for 30 years, and a former priest. They describe how "the Church had more power than the State" prior to the 1970’s, and how the priests and nuns saw themselves as the “moral guardians of the community…that nobody questioned.”