Son of Tuam survivor ‘over the moon' to secure funds to buy mother's home
Patrick Naughton, 70, from Ealing, west London, was taken from his mother, Christina 'Chrissie' Tully, from the Tuam mother and baby home in Co Galway in 1954, just weeks after she gave birth to him aged 24.
Mr Naughton, who moved to the UK with his adoptive parents aged 13, was reunited with Ms Tully, now 93, in 2013.
In a bid to help his birth mother, whom he said 'never had anything in her life', Mr Naughton set up a fundraiser to help her buy her council home, which was valued at 50,000 euro (£42,000).
Chrissie Tully, 93, a survivor of the Tuam mother and baby home in Co Galway (Patrick Naughton/PA)
Last week Ms Tully's story was picked up by the New York Times and since then their fundraiser has reached more than 71,000 euro (£59,000), hitting their target.
'Chrissie is stunned – the penny hasn't dropped yet,' Mr Naughton told the PA news agency.
'She never believed it would happen in her lifetime.
'I just can't thank everybody enough. It means the world and the earth to both of us.
'We had a wonderful woman in San Diego who was moved by our story and she donated 50,000 dollars (£37,000). I'm just over the moon.'
Ms Tully, who had given birth to another boy in 1949, when she was 18, via Caesarean section, was told by doctors at the time that he had died.
But she believes her son, whom she named Michael, is still alive.
As many as 68,000 people went through the religious-run mother and baby homes. Women's babies were forcibly taken from them and adopted.
Up to 9,000 children died in institutions across the country, in appalling conditions.
Mr Naughton said he had set up the fundraiser to buy her home from Galway council in case Michael ever returned like he did.
He said he and his mother have searched 'high and low' in recent years for records of her first child, but have been unable to find anything.
He said Ms Tully received a record from a Freedom of Information request that said the baby had been 'returned to Tuam home' after he died.
A mass unmarked grave at the former site of the Bon Secours mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway (Niall Carson/PA)
In 2014 it was revealed that hundreds of babies had been 'indecently buried' in a sewage tank at the Tuam mother and baby home.
The research by local historian Catherine Corless found that 796 babies and young children had died and been 'indecently buried in a defunct sewage system' at the home between 1925 and 1961.
Ms Tully, who said 'he could be in that pit in Tuam, but he could also have been adopted', said she wanted to keep her home for after she had died, in case he came looking for her, like Mr Naughton.
After they hit their fundraising target Mr Naughton said: 'We will get a plaque and we will put it up over the door and call it 'Michael's home'.'
Mr Naughton, who regularly travels to Ireland to visit his birth mother said: 'I am so happy because all of her life she's never had or owned anything.
'She worked in a priest's house for 13 years and then she worked in another home for 26 years simply because they were live-in jobs as she had nowhere to go.
'That's the icing on the cake is that she can spend the last few years of life knowing that she's an equal.
'Thanks isn't enough for the people that have done this.
'I just hope and pray to God Michael does come back.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
a day ago
- Spectator
Has deporting illegals become illegal?
The circus around Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia – whose full name the New York Times likes to trot out as if citing an old-school English aristocrat – speaks volumes about the immigration battle roiling the US. Our friend Kilmar is what we fuddy-duddies insist on calling an illegal immigrant. The Salvadoran crossed clandestinely into the US in 2012. As for what he's done since, that depends on whom you ask. According to his GoFundMe page, Kilmar is a 'husband, union worker and father of a disabled five-year-old'. Left-wing media portray 'the Maryland man' – a tag akin to Axel Rudakubana's 'a Welshman' – as an industrious metalworker devoted to his family. His wife has rowed back on the temporary protective order she once requested, claiming she'd been over-cautious. Yet according to the Trump administration, Kilmar is a member of the notoriously violent street gang MS-13 who's derived his primary source of income from smuggling hundreds of illegals over the southern border for several years. Choose A or B. In 2019, Kilmar was arrested for loitering along with three other men, one a suspected MS-13 member. He was carrying marijuana, for which (of course) he wasn't charged. From his clothing, tattoos and, more persuasively, a 'past proven and reliable' confidential source who verified he was an active gang member using the moniker 'Chele', police adjudged that Kilmar was a gangbanger, for which (of course) he wasn't charged. He was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement – whose acronym, ICE, reinforces its rep as cold-hearted – which moved to deport him. Kilmar (of course) contested his removal. The immigration judge hearing Kilmar's case concurred that the defendant was indeed a gang member and deportable; the Salvadoran (of course) appealed the decision, which nevertheless was upheld. Kilmar (of course) then filed for asylum, as well as for a 'withholding of removal'. A subsequent immigration judge stayed his deportation to his home country, where his wellbeing might be endangered by local gangs. Now, you might suppose that putting yourself in the way of other famously rivalrous gangs would come with the territory when you join one yourself. Like, inter-gang violence seems a natural hazard of this line of work. But it's not only British immigration judges who are soft touches. Only mass round-ups and swift group trials could effectively address the millions of gate-crashers Kilmar (of course) remained in the US. In 2022, he was pulled over for speeding while driving eight other Hispanic men of uncertain immigration status in an SUV altered to add a third row of seats for extra passengers. The officers suspected human-trafficking; Kilmar's driving licence had expired; a run of his number plate through the database turned up a federal note on likely membership of MS-13. Yet when the patrolmen contacted the feds, ICE (of course) declined to pick him up. So Kilmar was (of course) released without charge. Even so, his claim that he was merely transporting construction workers between jobs did not, under investigation, hold up. Fast-forward to 2025 and why this otherwise obscure Salvadoran who is or is not a thug merits such a detailed lowdown. Meaning (of course) that this case has to do with Donald Trump – whose evil minions in March flew more than 230 purported criminals to a Salvadoran prison, including none other than Kilmar, whom ICE did finally pick up (no 'of course' there). The flights' timing was judicially dodgy. The planes did or didn't take off after a federal judge ruled that the flights could not proceed until the deportees were given the opportunity to challenge their removal. The administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which directed Trump to 'facilitate' Kilmar's return to the US. Because, remember, there was only one country to which he could not be deported because of that credulous 2019 decision: his own. Hence the Justice Department's acceptance that Kilmar's deportation was an 'administrative error'. During this proxy war with Trump, Democrats have pretended to hair-tear over poor Kilmar, mouldering away in a nasty foreign prison and deprived of due process. But the story I just laid out has due process, not to mention leniency or even dereliction on the part of the authorities, up the wazoo. Meanwhile, after slyly getting their jurisprudential ducks in a row, last week Trump and co finally got Kilmar flown back to the US, only to arrest him immediately for human-trafficking – with every intention of convicting the guy and then deporting him right back to El Salvador. What do we make of this farce? The American commentariat has focused on a potential showdown between Trump and the judiciary, claiming to fear a flat-out executive refusal to follow court orders but secretly rather hoping that Trump does defy the courts and thus reveals himself as an unconstitutional tyrant. I view this absurd tale through a different lens. All these trials and flights for a lone illegal alien are expensive. The amount of 'due process' the American justice system affords every single illegal makes deportation at any scale impossible. There isn't enough time and money and there aren't nearly enough judges to make any but a token gesture toward the mass deportation of illegals that Trump has promised. That amounts to a victory not just for Democrats but also for disorder. I'd assess the odds that Kilmar is a thug at about 90 per cent. But proving membership of unofficial allegiances in court is a bastard. If every individual deportation case must be adjudicated according to exacting evidentiary rules and appeal procedures, America's drastic, undemocratic demographic change will proceed inexorably. Only mass round-ups and swift group trials could effectively address the staggering ten million gate-crashers during the Biden administration alone. What are the chances of that? In New York at the weekend, ICE raids were impeded by LA-style crowds of righteously indignant protestors screaming: 'Let them go! Let them go!' The officers just doing their jobs looked beleaguered, tired, numb and pre-defeated. After all the ICE agents' thankless labours, what proportion of their detainees will still get to stay in the country in the end? I'll take another stab at 90 per cent.
Reuters
a day ago
- Reuters
Two men plead not guilty in violent New York crypto kidnapping case
NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - Two men pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges they kidnapped a man for three weeks in Manahttan's upscale SoHo neighborhood, shocked him with electric wires and dangled him over a staircase to try to get him to give up his bitcoin password. John Woeltz, 37, and William Duplessie, 33, have been detained since their arrests last month on kidnapping and other charges. Both defendants face up to life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney's office said Duplessie and Woeltz on May 6 took a man's electronics and password and demanded that he share his password so they could steal his cryptocurrency. When the man refused to share his password, Duplessie and Woeltz began a series of brutal beatings over three weeks in a luxury townhouse until the man managed to escape, prosecutors said. Duplessie and Woeltz tied the man's wrists, hit him on the head with a gun and threatened to kill his family, according to criminal complaints against the two men filed in court. Local media have called Woeltz a cryptocurrency investor and described the alleged victim as an Italian man. Both Woeltz and the alleged victim had ties to a crypto hedge fund in New York, the New York Times reported, citing an internal police report described by a law enforcement official. The alleged incident comes as three cryptocurrency-linked kidnappings or kidnapping attempts have taken place in France so far this year. The rapid rise in the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in recent years has created a new group of wealthy investors who could be tempting targets for criminals, according to security experts.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Number of Australian journalists hit by US law enforcement during LA protests climbs to four
The number of Australian journalists hit by law enforcement while covering ongoing immigration protests in Los Angeles has climbed to four, with reporters for Nine, the ABC and the New York Times affected. One incident involved Australian journalist Livia Albeck-Ripka, who works for The New York Times. Albeck-Ripka, now based in LA, said she was hit in the torso by a munition fired by law enforcement while covering the protests. 'Officers began firing crowd-control munitions in our direction, and I was hit below my ribcage. It was a pretty intense, instant pain, I felt winded,' she said in a video for the New York Times. 'I was really lucky because I was not seriously injured, I just have a nasty bruise.' Albeck-Ripka, originally from Melbourne, was hit on Sunday night US time. She noted that less-lethal rounds could kill people if they were struck in the head. Lauren Day, the North American correspondent for the ABC, has said she and her crew were teargassed when the protests escalated following a long stand-off with police on Monday night local time. The experience was 'extremely unpleasant', she said. 'All of a sudden, we heard large bangs and the crowd started running. I then felt the unmistakable burn of tear gas — first in my eyes, then in my nose, lips and throat,' Day reported for the ABC. 'It really stings your entire face and makes it difficult to breathe until the point you almost want to throw up.' Later in the night, the cameraman working with Day was shot in the chest with a less-than-lethal round while filming protesters. Day said the cameraman had been wearing a Kevlar vest and had not sustained injuries. He described the pain to the ABC as 'like being punched in the chest'. In response to a question from the Guardian about Day's report of being hit with teargas, the LAPD said it was 'aware of less-lethal deployment use during the protests'. On Friday, a series of immigration raids across the city prompted several mostly peaceful protests around the city. On Saturday, Donald Trump sent in the national guard, in a move condemned by the California governor, Gavin Newsom, as 'purposefully inflammatory'. Since the deployment of the national guard, tensions have escalated with large crowds gathering in downtown centres. There have been reports of protesters throwing rocks, garbage and other objects at police and of police deploying tear gas and firing less-than-lethal munitions. A curfew has been declared. The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has condemned the actions of an officer who shot Nine journalist Lauren Tomasi with what the network said was a rubber bullet live on air. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Tomasi was describing the situation in LA on Sunday, when an LAPD officer turned and took aim in her direction before firing his weapon. Albanese has said the footage of Tomasi being shot was 'horrific' and he had raised his concerns with the US government. The LAPD said it was investigating the use of excessive force by officers – in an apparent reference to Tomasi. The Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, said the LAPD was aware and 'very concerned' about media being hit with crowd-control munitions. 'I know that situation you're referring to, with the member of the media. We saw that, we're very concerned about it and we're looking into that,' he said this week. Also on the weekend, British news photographer Nick Stern was injured while covering the protests near Paramount. He believes he was likely hit by a less-than-lethal round shot by deputies. 'I'm walking around taking photos … when I felt a mighty pain in my leg. I put my hand down and felt a lump kind of sticking out the back of my leg,' he told the Guardian. He underwent emergency surgery.
