DONEGAL’S mother and baby homes and an industrial school in Bundoran have provided inspiration for a Belfast author’s latest book.
Jim McVeigh’s latest work ‘Stolen Faith’ tells the story of a girl from the Falls Road who is forced to give birth in Tuam’s infamous Bon Secours home following a brief affair with an American GI.
Inspired by true events, the book flits between Ireland and Boston and explores the global implications of human trafficking conducted by the Catholic Church.
In compiling the novel Jim spoke to numerous victims of Ireland’s mother and baby homes, including some of those who spent time at two Donegal institutions – Stranorlar County Home and The Castle, Newtowncunningham. His research also led to the discovery of unsettling details about St Martha’s Industrial School for Girls in Bundoran.
While originally located in Monaghan, St Martha’s opened on a site in Bundoran in 1958 before closing eight years later. It provided accommodation for 120 young women.
“Like many from Belfast I would be down in the Bundoran area fairly often,” said ex-IRA prisoner, trade unionist and former Belfast City Councillor Jim.
“I have friends down there and a couple of them said to me about the school. They remember in the 1960s a group of children running away from it and who managed to make their way to England. But they were brought back by the police and I believe by the gardaí and were punished. One of the punishments was that they had their heads shaved. The story was carried in one of the British tabloids.”
Jim McVeigh’s interest in the mother and baby homes began many years before the full horror of what happened to thousands of young women was unearthed.
“How I ended up writing the book was that in 1969 when the conflict erupted in Belfast, I was part of a large group of young people who ended up in Tuam for a few weeks. We stayed in the home, I’m not sure if it was the same building but it was definitely the same place.
“When I got out of prison in 2000 I went to visit friends in Galway and we took a run to Tuam. The home was demolished in 1972 but someone had the foresight to keep a wall of it as a monument. We went to see it and the little shrine that was there at that time. I was intrigued by it and wanted to know more.
“When Catherine Corless and others broke the whole story in 2012 things fell into place for me and that is where the story came from.”
The Castle in Newtowncunningham which accommodated hundreds of women. It was described as a supported hostel rather than a traditional mother and baby home.
Through research Jim became very aware of the brutality meted out to women at the hands of the Catholic Church. And he did not hold back in telling it all in Stolen Faith.
“I thought a great deal about how I would deal with the treatment of the women and I was conscious that there were lots of victims.
“I sent them the manuscript at different points and told them that I was taking a no-holds-barred approach to describing the treatment of the women and children. I asked if they felt that would be insensitive and they came back and said no, don’t airbrush it because they wanted people to be faced with the reality of what went on at the hands of the church. So there is nothing in my novel that did not happen to countless women and children.”
Hundreds of children died from various causes in the Tuam mother and baby home over a 36-year-period but almost 800 of them have no known graves. And despite the passing of more than a decade since Catherine Corless began highlighting the terrible things that occurred at the Bon Secours home, exhumations have yet to take place.
“I hope it resonates with the victims, survivors and that it helps bring attention to the issue and makes people angry because I don’t think the full story of what went on in these homes has yet come to life.
“The remains at Tuam are still lying in the septic tank. There has been no police investigation. We don’t know who put the bodies there, who knew it was going on or how many bodies are actually there.
“It was a shocking experience to read the awful things that were done to these children and my conclusion was that what happened in real life was far worse than anything I could have written.
“I just hope my book motivates people to actually find the answers to their questions.”
Stolen Faith by Jim McVeigh is published by Brandon, an imprint of the O’Brien Press. It is available in bookshops and from most online platforms.
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT EDITION TODAY
and get access to our archive editions dating back to 2007(CLICK ON THE TITLE BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE)