Belonging, Catherine Corless
Belonging, Catherine Corless
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Belonging
One Woman's Search for Truth and Justice for the Tuam Babies

Author: Catherine Corless

Narrator: Caitriona Hinds

Unabridged: 12 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/30/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

ONE WOMAN, THE SECRETS OF A SMALL TOWN, AND A QUEST FOR JUSTICE THAT ROCKED A NATION.

Catherine Corless could not have known where her interest in local history would lead her, as she began researching the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Galway in 2010. Uncovering no less than 796 missing burial records of children born there, the stark truth of their place of rest became clear: a disused sewage tank on the old home site, where two boys had once stumbled upon bones.

But who were these lost children, and what had happened to them in the care of the Bons Secours order of nuns?

Determined to know more, Catherine's painstaking research led to a quest for justice that continues still as, often against fierce resistance, she brought to light a terrible truth that shocked the world, impacted the Vatican, and led to a Commission of Investigation in Ireland.

Part memoir, part detective story, Belonging is both a personal account - of identity, beginnings and Catherine's search for her own mother's lost story - and a recounting of her forensic crusade on behalf of the lost babies of Tuam. It speaks to the tender love of a mother and her child; to the unforgettable screams which echoed through the corridors as babies were taken against the parent's will; and to a mystery which continues to this day, as so many still search to know where, and to whom, they belong.

(P) 2021 Hachette Books Ireland

About Catherine Corless

Catherine Corless is married to Aidan, and they have four children, Adrienne, Alan, Alicia and Aaron, and nine grandchildren. Her quiet, secluded life - rearing a family, farming, gardening, and enjoying her pastimes of art, crafts and family history research - changed drastically in 2014, after some research she had done into the Bons Secours Mother and Baby Home at Tuam was picked up by media and exposed worldwide. Her research revealed the harshness, cruelty and discrimination of the mothers who gave birth there, and their offspring. It also revealed the terrible secret of 800 babies who had died at the Home from 1925-1961, whose remains had been laid in a defunct sewage tank. Resulting from this revelation, the Irish government was pressurised into setting up a Commission of Investigation into all Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland, whose final report was issued in January 2021.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Aoife

A heartfelt memoir and a really important book documenting the story of the Tuam Babies, as they’ve become known. The Tuam Babies are the 796 children whose remains were discovered in a disused septic tank on the grounds of the old Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co Galway. The “Home” (what an oxymoro......more

Goodreads review by Ted

Catherine Corless is a phenomenal woman and this book highlights the great work she has done to uncover the truth for those innocent women and children who were let down by everyone around them.......more

Goodreads review by Mise

A phenomenal woman. She quotes St Augustine not in relation to herself, but I think it's a great description of her work. "The truth is like a lion. You do not have to defend it. Let it loose. It can defend itself".......more

Goodreads review by David

After the formation of the Irish State one hundred years ago, provision of certain critical services for citizens - healthcare and education - was outsourced to the Catholic Church. The Church ran the schools, hospitals, care facilities and more in the ways they saw fit. So begun the sorry story of......more