Bodies of hundreds of infants buried at Irish institution to be recovered
The mass grave, containing 796 babies who died between 1925 and 1961, was uncovered by amateur historian Catherine Corless in 2014.
A 2017 government investigation confirmed significant human remains of children, buried without coffins in the 9ft-deep tank.
The painstaking two-year process aims to identify the remains, with DNA assistance from families, before proper re-interment.
The discovery prompted apologies from the Irish premier and the Bon Secours Sisters, acknowledging the profound historical mistreatment of mothers and children in such homes.
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Daily Mail
10 hours ago
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And though she refuted our relationship – 'I am not your mother' – I was still her daughter. The poem also makes a plea for peace in a torrid journey, using still for calm. Brennan is at pains to make 'care partners', as she calls them – us – understand the imperatives of caring for themselves: put your own oxygen mask on first. You can't care well if you're unhappy, unhealthy, sleep deprived. Looking after yourself might not seem obvious but the rigours of a care partner's role – described as 'the 36-hour day' by memory experts – means you must. As a psychologist, Brennan urges carers against feeling guilty or resentful. If you're worried Brennan is a know-it-all who presents as a paragon of caring virtue, don't be. She has the self-awareness to know she lacks the patience for full-time care. 'I am best suited to short stints of quality care,' she writes – her mother spent the week in a nursing home and weekends with Brennan. 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Brennan captures dozens of vignettes of others affected by dementia. These offer a well focused lens on what dementia looks and feels like. I saw my own experience reflected often. When Susan describes the imperatives of keeping a log of her mother's dementia, I am reminded of the notes I kept to track meds, the diary I wrote that retrospectively served as a description of the disease's trajectory. And I saw my mother there too: when Kay describes her distress at her daughter taking her wedding rings away for safekeeping – 'I feel sad when I look at my naked fingers' – I know that narrowing mum's with a plaster so that it wouldn't fall off a thinner finger, was the right thing to do. Brennan explains the neuropsychiatric conditions that can present in dementia too. 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I think about this for a bit, and I know that in the fallout of my mother's illness there were bright moments of genuine pleasure for her – when she could still taste ice cream, still walk the dog, still enjoy the TV series Anne With An E (about Anne of Green Gables) on repeat – and real laughter for the both of us. Those are rare diamonds in the rough; seize them. Their value will help sustain you through the bleakness.
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