Lying to the People – State Broadcaster

Just for the craic and nothing else, I decided to challenge the false history and nonsense broadcast by Ireland’s state broadcaster, RTÉ. Most people will not waste their time complaining to RTÉ as viewers’ complaints often get a short shrift. That is exactly what I expected and that is exactly what I got from RTÉ. Nonetheless, it was worth the effort because it left a trail in print that reveals RTÉs method of operating together with the level of education, skills and prejudices of its editorial staff regarding fact-checking.

The mother and baby homes scandal has become a nice little earner for the Irish media and others. The “Stolen” documentary was just the latest redrawing to emerge from Ireland’s new architecture of buffoonery. Broadcast on 26 August 2024 it simply repeated many proven lies, it relied totally on many historical falsehoods, and false interpretations of historical evidence. RTÉ ignored the evidence gathered by a government commission of investigation that found that no abuse had taken place at historic Irish mother and baby homes.

Ireland’s feminists have a long-established tradition of authoring melodramatic stories that have little or no bases in fact. These architects of buffoonery have become so forceful that the requirement for factual TV documentaries to be based on fact is no longer necessary.

It’s a lengthy read but here are some of the bullet points.

Claim: Children were hungry in mother and baby homes and marasmus is evidence of that. – It is a statement that is a lie based on ignorance.
Claim: The Irish government hated women. – Lie!
Claim: The Gardner at the Tuam Children’s Home was delivering babies. – Lie
Claim: Shallow graves at Sean Ross Abbey. Babies’ bodies buried 10 inches beneath the soil. – That would be the easiest archaeological investigation to conduct ever in history.
Claim: Woman (sic) and children lives brutally shattered. – Lie
Claim: Deaths were not certified by a medical doctor. – Lie
Claim: Sex was really dirty in Catholic Ireland. Total fantasy – Irish state records show that millions of babies were produced by Catholics having sex.
Claim: Institutions for discipline or containment of women and children. – Laughable.
Claim: 796 deaths at Tuam Children’s Home were horrific and appalling. – They were no different from the causes of death for the other 250,000 children who died during the same time period.

Plenty of lying by omission.

No mention of alleged abuse and murder of children at a Protestant run home in Dublin to deliberately create anti-Catholic sentiment.
No mention of unwanted children and their plight.
No mention of mother and baby homes in Britain.

complaints@rte.ie

To Whom it nay concern.

I would like to complain about the content and false allegations contained within the documentary film entitled ‘Stolen’ and broadcast on RTÉ One at 9:35pm on August 26^th 2024.

This complaint is under the following:

LEGISLATION Section 42(2)(b)
the broadcast treatment of current affairs, including matters which are either of public controversy or the subject of current public debate, is fair to all interests concerned and that the broadcast matter is presented in an objective and impartial manner and without any expression of the broadcaster’s own views.

BAI CODE now Coimisiún na Meán[1]
Code of Fairness, Impartiality and Objectivity in News and Current Affairs

RTÉ Journalism & Content Guidelines | Third Edition 2020
RTÉ Journalism Guidelines Revised September 2014, Section 4. Editorial Principles
BAI Code of Programme Standards – Principle 5 – Respect for Persons and Groups in Society
BAI Code of Programme Standards – Principle 6 – Protection of the Public Interest

The programme was presented to the public as a factual documentary about historic mother and baby homes. However, many of the claims made by contributors have no basis in fact and were the product of bias and prejudice. Accordingly, it is evident that the producers made no attempt to present a balanced narrative nor did they even try to conduct a basic fact-checking exercise. The outcome was that many untruths were piled on top of more untruths and sold to the viewers as incontrovertible facts. The upshot was a carnival of hate directed towards people because of their religion. Furthermore, as the free Irish nation was also smeared during the documentary it represents the very exemplar of Irish self-loathing.

As the historic mother and baby homes story is a topic of public controversy and debate at this present time, it qualifies as a current affairs issue. A point further evidenced by the reportage surrounding this documentary by a significant number of news publications both Irish and international.

The main thrust of the documentary was to allege that the Irish government set up a commission of investigation into mother and baby homes that was totally incompetent. For this premise to stand, it means that the Irish government was then, and perhaps, remains incompetent now.

The reality is that the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes was not incompetent. While there are provable, and elementary errors along with biases in their various reports, the commission overall reached the only possible conclusion, based on the evidence, that there was no evidence to support the claims made by the various contributors to this documentary.

The very foundation of the abuse myth is the historic use of the medical term ‘marasmus’ on various death certificates associated with these institutions. “Marasmus, which is hunger” [2] was the exact phrase used and further reinforced with a statement leading to a question; “the Bon Secours pride themselves on the highest standards of care. So why were the children hungry?”[3] (Note, the Bon Secours order exists presently and here is a deliberate attempt to smear the reputation of their current members.)

Look up the word ‘hunger’ in a thesaurus and it will not list marasmus as one of its synonyms. Marasmus cannot be used as evidence that children were hungry, starved or starved to death because that is not the meaning of this medical term.

However, for the scandal promoters, it is of vital importance that this lie is repeated, repeatedly, because its shock value is the very foundation for the false allegations of abuse in mother and baby homes. Moreover, it appears that they fear that without this significant shock value, to soften up the audience, the power of persuasion of all the subsequent allegations will be greatly diminished.

The producers nor the contributors have no obvious knowledge of vintage medical terminology. Accordingly, the producers were negligent in not acquiring the necessary advice from medical or historical experts in the field. They allowed a blatant lie to be broadcast unchecked. Furthermore, they either ignored the relevant passages in the commission’s final report or never bothered to examine it in the first place.

An expert would have pointed out that all other maternity hospitals in Ireland at that time recorded the deaths of infants from ‘marasmus’. Why has the management of these hospitals not stood accused of starving children in their care! Consequently, the singling out of the Catholics based on false information can only be classified as blatant sectarianism.[4]

A fact further emphasised by the exclusion of any mention of Dublin’s protestant mother and baby home. Many years prior to the breaking of the Tuam Children’s Home scandal in 2014, the same accusations appeared in the Irish media that protestant women were starving children to death at the Bethany mother and baby home. All these allegations were based on the same false interpretation of the medical term ‘marasmus’.

At least 9,000 babies died between 1922 and 1998, a death rate that was often five times the national average.[5]

All hospitals, at that time had death rates well above the national average. This is known as a hospital effect in statistics. This was not explained to the viewers.

Raw mortality statistics are never used to imply poor quality care because there are many other factors in the mix. All statistics require expert interpretation. The absence of expert or competent analysis allowed logical fallacies take over and grip the imagination of those unaware of the requirements of statistical analysis. The producers either deliberately allowed a logical fallacy to be presented as evidence, or it happened accidentally due to a lack of knowledge on their part. In any case, no person who is knowledgeable in historic medicine was asked to interpret these mortality statistics.

Before I go on to deal with a sample of the high number of other false claims made in the documentary, it would be worth considering why RTÉ has run with many similar stories, without asking the primary questions of any competent investigator.

If religious women were murdering infants and children through abuse and neglect, questions should be asked as to what benefit would accrue to them from such actions?

First point, murder was then, and is now, against their religion. If man would not prosecute them for their crimes, they firmly believed that God would do so. Accordingly, they believed that they would suffer eternal damnation from these alleged actions. That is not a benefit.

Why would religious women offer a baby killing service. There were plenty of women out there, most often called “baby farmers”, who would offer such a service, for a fee. Perhaps it was due to pure meanness because religious women would kill babies for free. Again, unlike the “baby farmers”, there is no financial benefit in offering a free service.

Moreover, and even though the Irish state extended sympathy and benevolence to women who murdered their children, the statute books of the time demanded the death penalty. Why would religious women risk the death penalty when zero benefit would accrue to them?

The biggest question of all is why RTÉ has failed to ask the basic questions?

A contributor expressed his opinion: “To me, there’s an inherent misogyny at the heart of the Irish state right from its very foundation”[6]

An opinion not based on fact but on an old Irish, Anti-Irish prejudice that they hold against themselves, hence the term, ‘self-loathing’. However, had RTÉ or the documentary producers conducted a fact-checking exercise of this opinion, its lack of veracity would have been immediately apparent. In fact, the attitude of the Irish State was expressed publicly through Mr. Justice Kenny during a trial of a young mother who pleaded guilty and was convicted of murdering her illegitimate child.

‘An illegitimate child is entitled to the protection of the law just, as much as one born in lawful wedlock. It is in no extenuation of illegitimacy that I say that some of the most distinguished people who ever lived were illegitimate. […] It must be brought home to all young girls in this country that it is their duty to preserve the lives of the unhappy children they give birth to— that their lives are just as sacred as the lives of any other children, and that the State is prepared and has always been prepared to support and maintain them until they reach an age when they can work for themselves.’ [7]

Poverty is a major factor in high infant mortality rates and that is evident even today. The topic is presently abundant in medical journals and medical literature. However, there is no evidence that any of the producers were familiar with the subject and were therefore blissfully happy to broadcast information out of its correct context. Thus, the contributors made claims about medical issues that went unchallenged and while they spoke confidently about issues relating to epidemiology, aetiology and pathology, they had no knowledge or expertise to establish a factual basis for their claims. Thus, another major failing of the producers and the RTÉ fact checkers.

796 children and death certs and all of those horrific and appalling causes of deaths, just shocked the world. Appalling causes of death! [8]

The causes of death were no different at Tuam Children’s Home than those that occurred at every other Irish institution, including hospitals. A total of more than 250,000 children, under the age of five years, died during that period of Irish history. All of them died from the same diseases and birth defects as the children who died at Tuam. The exclusion of this crucial evidence has allowed the producers to avoid putting mortality rates in their true context, therefore, they either deliberately or inadvertently, misled their audience.

Tuam was unusual as the institution contained its own maternity hospital and it spent the longest time in operation. There is nothing unusual in the Tuam infant mortality statistics. It is due to the hospital effect and a high-risk cohort.

The overwhelming majority of illegitimate children born in Ireland were not born in mother and baby homes during the period of their existence. The programme makers did not attempt to total the figures using the data easily available from the annual reports of the Registrar General.

The statistics from the Registrar General’s reports show that most illegitimate children in Ireland were reared outside of institutions. Mostly a grandmother reared her daughter’s illegitimate child. There are many stories of people who only found out the truth about the circumstances of their birth when they sought their birth documents in advance of marriage. None of them were interviewed by the producers of the documentary.

“But they were institutions of containment for women who did not fit the ideal that was enforced by Church and State.”[9]

Not true. Most unmarried mothers did not give birth in mother and baby homes. They were set up to give poor and destitute women refuge with the express aim of saving the lives of infants. Moreover, women had to apply to get in and could be refused entry. Nowhere else in the world did men nor women have to apply to be incarcerated in an institution. Women entered the mother and baby homes voluntarily. Some more wealthy women paid a fee to enter and for their care. Other unfortunate women were happy to escape family violence, incest, poverty etc.

Mother and baby homes existed in Britain and in many other countries. Pregnant Irish women were ineligible to apply for entry. The British Catholic Protection and Rescue Society came to their aid, arranging accommodation and travel back to Ireland.

One contributor claimed that she was forcibly removed or kidnapped from England. Was then smuggled through airport security and landed in Cork. In 1973 air fares to England cost multiples of an average weekly wage. Having two other people fly with her was then an extravagance beyond the means of most charities. Most people could not afford air travel and travelled by train and boat. It would have been easier to smuggle someone on to a boat, but no matter which method of transport was chosen, everyone would have to walk past customs officers on arrival in Ireland. One of the many missed opportunities to declare to authorities that she was being kidnapped.

The programme makers did not challenge the veracity of this story nor did they interview any person who had inside knowledge of the British Catholic Protection and Rescue Society.

The society paid the travel expenses of women who wanted to return to Ireland to have their baby because they were not eligible to enter British mother and baby homes. No one else has claimed that they were kidnapped in this manner. The story is at best dodgy because it is fantastical and there is no evidence to support it.

This woman’s story has had many variations with each retelling. She gave birth in hospital but claims to have been isolated and starved in that hospital. Note: not in a mother and baby home. On another television documentary she claimed to have been wrapped in “tin foil’ due to shock. Space blankets are not used in hospitals then or now to treat hypovolemic shock.

Not one woman was interviewed who spoke to the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes about how good their treatment was in mother and baby homes. Not a single comment was allowed to be aired.

Another contributor holds up a death certificate for an infant name John Dolan but then claims that his death was not certified. The death certificate confirms that the death was certified by a doctor. Moreover, on other newspaper articles, she claims he was born in Tuam when in fact the birth certificate states that he was born 34km away at the Central Hospital, Galway City. The woman claims that her brother was born healthy but deteriorated, due to ill treatment at the Tuam Children’s Home, and died a congenital idiot. She does not know the meaning of the word ‘congenital’. Neither do the journalists who have reported this story full of elementary errors.

It was stated by one contributor that: “I knew there was a woman who worked there and lived all her life in it. She was there for delivering babies, and she was there for standing for babies. And her name was Julia Devane[y]”.

Julia Devaney was employed as a gardener at the Tuam Children’s Home, not as a midwife. Julia was recorded during a series of sessions with Rebecca (Rebe) Millane in in the late 1970s to 1981. The scandal promoters have been quoting her words out of context and have never reported any of her comments that were complimentary to the nuns or the institution they ran on behalf of Galway Co Co. This is just a selection of Julia’s words that have been kept hushed away from the public ear.

23:00 The mothers had one room for themselves where they used to dance. They had a gramophone there and a melodeon.

36:40 Rebe: “But there was no cruelty?”

Julia: “Ah there was no cruelty except some of[?] the mothers [of the children], I have to say that now, they used to whack hell out of the kids…” This comment has been reworked many times by the scandal promoters to imply, falsely, that the nuns were hitting the children.

38:45 -Sure they had a little graveyard of their own up there, it’s still there, it’s walled in. A little graveyard.”

39:30 If a child died under a year there was always an enquiry.

40:06 Rebe: “Did the nuns regard them, did they regard them or treat them [the mothers], as kind of sinners?”

Julia: “No, no they did not. Oh no no no they did not.” Rebe: “There was no condemnation?”

Julia: “No, no, no Rebe, in fact they were, in fact they were very very nice to them, never never cast anything up to them or said anything like that hard to them at all. Oh no, never [her emphasis). Oh never trampled[?][10] on them as sinners at all. They didn’t make Mary Magdalen’s out of them or anything like that.”[11]

Violation of Principle 6 – This principle recognises that the public interest can also be adversely affected by the omission of material and/or the inadequate representation of information or viewpoints.

We now know that there was at least 13 vaccine-related products trialled on children in mother and baby homes. Some 40,000 children, we now believe, took part in these trials. The consent of mothers doesn’t seem to have been obtained in any of these cases. [12]

The commission of investigation into mother and baby homes named the people below for conducting vaccine trials on children without obtaining permission. The trials were carried out through an arrangement with doctors in charge of various mother and baby homes. The authorities who ran these homes had no idea that children in their care were subjected to clinical trials. Yet they are falsely made to shoulder the blame, when in fact it is the universities who should get all the blame and pay compensation. However, not one university has been pressured into issuing an apology since they were named in the commission report released in January 2021. Why has all the blame been heaped upon the wrong people?

Professor Patrick Meenan Department of Medical Microbiology, University College, Dublin
Dr Irene Hillery, Department of Medical Microbiology, University College, Dublin
Dr Victoria Coffey, Trinity College, Dublin the first female president of the Irish Paediatric Association, the paediatric section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland, the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI)
Dr Margaret Dunleavy, the first female president of the Biological Society of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland [13]

A pre-market release vaccine was given to children in the 1930s in an effort control a diphtheria epidemic that was laying waste to young lives. It was conducted with the full knowledge of the government and the management of various children’s institutions. Diphtheria killed children in significant numbers and there was little else the authorities could do to stop the epidemic. It was not a medical experiment and there is no evidence that even a single child was harmed.

One of the contributors to the documentary mentioned a number of 40,000 children who she alleged were part of these trials. This number is speculative, grossly exaggerated and not based on evidence.

The social care system for poor, unmarried, expectant women and new mothers when Ireland was part of the United Kingdom was diabolical. Poor women received care in a secular system of institutions known as workhouses. Food was rationed to them minimal number of calories to sustain life. Consequently, in 1906, a report of a Vice-Regal commission stated that a workhouse was an unsuitable ‘refuge or asylum’ for mothers of illegitimate children. It recommended that ‘first-time mothers should be sent to institutions owned or managed by religious communities or philanthropic persons’. The 1906 Vice-Regal Commission provided the template for the mother and baby homes that were established after 1922 when the new Irish state implemented a British designed system.[14] However, RTÉ viewers were told “the mother and baby institutions are a product of the Irish Free State”, a statement that is not entirely true.

It was expressly stated in the documentary that

“there’s an inherent misogyny at the heart of the Irish state right from its very foundation. Women became the targets of this creepy obsession with sexuality of the Irish Catholic Church. Sex was really dirty in Catholic Ireland, probably worse than murder.” [15]

Not true. Millions of Catholics were having sex as evidenced by the product of sex, produced in the millions.

A clear intent to mislead the audience into believing that everyone in the state, or in the employ of the state, hated women. Moreover, it’s a manifestation of the old canard that Ireland was incapable of managing its own affairs unlike the British, who are implicitly and falsely cast as our benign benefactors.

First point, both the Vice Regal commission and the new Irish government were only concerned with the care of poor women and their newborn children. The statistics show that women who were better off financially, took care of their own problem, without seeking any state assistance. No creepy obsession needed.

Second, all the Christian churches, not just the catholic church, were actively trying to save the lives of unwanted children. The catholic church has a proud history, stretching back nearly two thousand years of rescuing unwanted infants. It was never in the business of killing illegitimate or unwanted babies. The early Christian system evolved to guarantee the abandoning mothers, and their families, anonymity. Mothers were then free to start a new life, keeping their past a secret.

Newborn infants are vulnerable to disease along with a range of health issues. It is only in recent times, from as recent as the early 1950s, that western society has been able to reduce infant mortality rates. We know today why breast feeding is so important for a baby with no immune system. A mothers first produced breast milk or colostrum contains vital ingredients to protect a newborn baby’s digestive system, plus lactoferrin to prevent infection, leukocytes (white blood cells), carotenoids (an antioxidant), vitamins, trace elements and more.

Without this first milk, a newborn infant is at a significant biological disadvantage and consequent higher risk of mortality. Abandoned newborn babies, known as foundlings, are the highest risk of mortality and their presence raised the mortality rate at the institution who cared for them. Add in a high-risk cohort of infants born to impoverished mothers and that accounts for higher infant mortality rates at institutions caring for the poor.

The producers of the documentary have no knowledge of the causes of high infant mortality rates nor it appears, does anyone has at RTÉ. Consequently, viewers were misled into believing that children died in catholic run homes from diseases that were preventable.

In Ireland between 1925 and 1960 a total of 145,818 children died before the age of five years. Of that number, 132,387 child deaths were recorded as children of married parents. The remainder, 13,431 was the number of children born to unmarried mothers who died.[16] If we are to believe the scandal promoters, then who killed the other 132,000 children and why?

Near the end of the documentary, one contributor stated the commission of investigation into mother and baby homes found that there was no abuse in these institutions. For the best part of an hour and a half, viewers were told one horror story after another until finally, possibly on advice from their lawyers, they mention that the commission of investigation found no evidence of abuse. WHAT! No abuse, after all that! A clever device to lead viewers up the garden path, play with their emotions, before dropping the huge clanger, with the obvious aim of diminishing a major fining of the investigation.

The reality is that the stories told by many so-called witnesses are not credible. No person with an inclination towards fair judgement could accept many of these testimonies as genuine, because they are not supported by the evidence, are fantastical, based on prejudice, or a desire for notoriety and/or financial compensation.

The commission of investigation into mother and baby homes, investigated for seven years, trawled through a million documents. All the errors they made were due to their use of assumptions and mostly sided with the scandal promoters. Despite allegations of criminal wrongdoing, and reported to An Garda Síochána many times, they have not been able to prosecute or name, deceased or otherwise, suspects, despite a decade of complaints. Why, because there is no evidence. Not in a million documents.

The massive media onslaught of repeated false allegations enraged the Irish and international public to such a degree that the religious orders felt pressured into apologising for the actions of their predecessors. “Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels. In behavioural science it is known as the “illusion of truth” effect.

For the last decade there were voices who spoke in support of the truth on this issue. Not one single historian was sought out who had opposing views on the subject. If no historians like me, could be found, why did the producers of the documentary ignore the prominent people who have been critical of the false narrative of the scandal promoters. They include, Senator Michael McDowall, Anne Harris, former Irish Independent editor and Catherine McGuinness, a retired supreme court judge.

All were excluded while RTÉ claim that “we do not present factual material in a way that will materially mislead the audience.”[17]

That quote is from RTÉ’s Journalism & Content Guidelines | Third Edition 2020. It appears to the public that this is the currently prevailing policy document stipulating the standards that RTÉ staff must adhere to maintain the trust of their audience.

Trust is the cornerstone of RTÉ: our content should be honest, reliable, authoritative, accurate, impartial, fair and independent of vested interests.[18]

This document does not contain a superseding statement so it may be construed that some of the earlier dated ‘standards’ documents are still valid. Particularly as they seem to be the result of a much stronger journalistic ethic than applies to the current documents. RTÉ Journalism Guidelines Revised September 2014 on Editorial Principles states,

4.2 Accuracy

We strive for accuracy in all our output. Our reporting is well sourced, based on sound evidence, thoroughly tested and presented in clear, precise language. We are honest about what we do not know and avoid unfounded speculation.[19]

4.3 Impartiality

We provide impartial news, current affairs and factual programmes. We aim to present content that addresses a broad range of subjects and issues.

We seek to:

maintain a balance of opinion that reflects the weight of evidence
ensure fair treatment
be open-minded
provide opportunities over time so that no significant strand of thought is ignored or under-represented.

I have contacted RTÉ on many occasions. Not once have I received a reply.

RTÉ has effectively been involved in a smear campaign for over a decade and the ‘Stolen’ documentary is just another one of its manifestations. The targets include the Sisters of the Bon Secours both living and deceased. Also included are Christians and Catholic people in particular, along with the entire Irish nation, sneered at by the Irish self-loathers. The Sisters of the Bon Secours are at the least entitled to a right of reply. Any other organisation who was smeared by RTÉ et al, would have sued long ago. I can only surmise because of the flimsy evidence and the commission of investigation findings, that a court would have no choice but to award damages against RTÉ and they would amount to substantial sums. There is no doubt that RTÉ would be in more trouble than the currently are, were it not for a core value of Christian women’, turning the other cheek when struck. The Irish public can only be disappointed that they did not act, because the likely result may be that the staff at RTÉ would have felt less entitled and emboldened to broadcast fake news and false information.

It may be justifiably argued that broadcasters and the media have a right to relay to the public allegations based on no more evidence than personal opinions. The express purpose is to stimulate public debate to test the veracity of any such allegations. However, it is incumbent on the body disseminating allegations, to not only conduct a basic fact checking exercise but to seek out dissenting voices and relay these to the public. The public are entitled to hear all sides of the debate so that they can make valid judgements for themselves.

A key principle enshrined in Principle 6 and violated by RTÉ – This principle recognises that the public interest can also be adversely affected by the omission of material and/or the inadequate representation of information or viewpoints.

When one side of any debate has been excluded, the intent is to mislead the audience. RTÉ have lost the trust of the people because of their recent governance scandals. However, it will only be able to begin to rebuild public confidence when it engages competent fact checkers.

I am sure that RTÉ will try and dismiss this complaint on a technicality rather than substance. The only way to make amends is to broadcast a factual documentary or documentaries where the other side are allowed to present the evidence that opposes the biased view of RTÉ. Moreover, these programmes should get the same prominence and advanced promotion as all the other mother and baby homes programmes.

I surmise however, that RTÉ will find an excuse to cover up the real story citing perhaps, that it is not in the public interest to show how RTÉ, et al, has managed to silence dissenting voices along with the voice of reason. The real evidence is clear and abundant but if covered up again, posterity will be left to cast judgement on those responsible for RTÉ’s poor standards.

Yours sincerely,

Eugene Jordan,
Historian

References

Commission of Investigation. ‘Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation Final Report’. October 30, 2020.

‘Infanticide Industry – Judge on Protection of The Illegitimate Child’. Cork Examiner. Cork, October 3, 1928, Morning edition.

Jordan, Eugene. The Irish Attack on Christianity – The Case for the Defence. 2021.

‘Stolen’. Stolen – There Are Dark Secrets Buried Beneath This Waterlogged Surface. Dublin, August 2024.

Catherine McGuinness comments: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/mother-and-baby-homes-recordings-should-be-destroyed-commission-1.4492209

Michael McDowell defence of the Commission: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/work-of-mother-and-baby-home-commission-not-adequately-acknowledged-1.4593215

Anne Harris comments: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/failure-to-offer-a-head-on-a-platter-behind-savaging-of-mother-and-baby-report-1.4606060

[1] Rider on https://www.cnam.ie/ This website provides some initial information about Coimisiún na Meán. It will be replaced by a full website in due course. In the meantime, information regarding broadcasting regulation in Ireland remains available on www.bai.ie. (Accessed 7th September 2024)
[2] ‘Stolen’, Stolen – There Are Dark Secrets Buried Beneath This Waterlogged Surface (Dublin, August 2024).
[3] ‘Stolen’.
[4] In fulfilment of Principle 5, broadcasters shall: – Not broadcast material involving threatening, abusive or insulting visual images or sounds with the intent to stir up hatred or where it is likely that hatred will be stirred up as a result against persons or groups in society, including on the grounds of race, religion, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation or nationality.
[5] ‘Stolen’.
[6] ‘Stolen’.
[7] ‘Infanticide Industry – Judge on Protection of The Illegitimate Child’, Cork Examiner (Cork, October 3, 1928), Morning edition.
[8] ‘Stolen’.
[9] ‘Stolen’.
[10] [?] indicates that a sound can be heard but indistinguishable due to noise and recording on nonprofessional equipment.
[11] Transcript of the Julia Devaney tapes by Eugene Jordan
[12] ‘Stolen’.
[13] Commission of Investigation, ‘Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation Final Report’ (October 30, 2020).
[14] Commission of Investigation, ‘Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation Final Report’.[15] ‘Stolen’.
[16] Eugene Jordan, The Irish Attack on Christianity – The Case for the Defence (2021).
[17] RTÉ Journalism & Content Guidelines | Third Edition 2020
[18] ibid
[19] RTÉ Journalism Guidelines Revised September 2014 Section 4. Editorial Principles

Part 2 – RTÉs reply

Lying to the People – State Broadcaster – Part 2