*Rita McCarthy.
A new book by social historian Rita McCarthy, which recounts the stories of the women and children who were affected by the Clare mother and baby home, will be published and available to the public this Thursday (August 21st).
The book, entitled Forgotten Lives – The Story of the County Clare Mother and Baby Home known as the County Nursery, 1922–1932, will also have its official launch on Thursday with an open invitation to the public to attend the event in the Local Studies Centre in Ennis Library, beginning at 6pm.
Published by Banner Books, the book delves into the untold history of the County Clare Nursery. Opened in 1922 in part of Kilrush Workhouse, the state-supported mother and baby home was owned and funded by Clare County Council for the ten years of its existence. For the first six years it was managed by the Sisters of Mercy and thereafter by lay staff.
Conditions in the Nursery were reported as inhumane and the death rate of babies was described by the doctor in charge as “appalling.”
McCarthy explained that through her research she uncovered “a building that was not fit for purpose. There was no sanitation, no water, there were windows without glass, there was a leaking roof, rats coming through the scourging board”.
Kilrush’s Rita began her research while undertaking an MA in local history in 2013. “I came across, which I had known nothing about, that there was a mother and baby home in the county, and even more to my surprise it was in the town of Kilrush, and I had been born just outside that town,” she said. “I just couldn’t forget the story of this mother and baby home, so I kind of kept digging away at it, and I found out more and more… it just proved an incredible story”.
Her extensive research draws on archives, newspaper reports, oral histories, and even contributions to the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. “As far as I was concerned it was a hidden story… it is time to tell the story of the women and children,” she told The Clare Echo.
The book recounts the lives of the women who entered the institution, often spending up to two years there with their child before being forced to leave. Many were unable to return to their families or communities because of stigma. “I think of the sorrow and the trauma that these women carried with them throughout their lives, unrecognized, unspoken. The trauma and the stress that those women carried with them, I think it’s time that we acknowledged their lives and the lives of the innocent children that were born there.”
While the book acknowledges the trauma of the institution, McCarthy has also highlighted survivor stories, including those of Jimmy King, who was born in the nursery. “I tell three stories of children who were born there, who went on to do very well in their lives. Jimmy’s story is one of survival… he was looked after by the people who fostered him. But he certainly carried trauma throughout his life”.
It was important to Rita to show the positive stories from the institution’s history to show that not every life was defined by tragedy, and that resilience and hope endured even in the harshest of circumstances. “I think a lot of the discussion around this subject can be very heavy, but every story is different. Every person has a different story and people go through the same difficulties but have different outcomes and different stories to tell. And that’s what I want. I want you to give a full picture of it”.
She stresses that the work is not about pointing blame, but about memorialising. “I don’t want this to be a book about blaming people, because it isn’t that, it’s just a book telling you the story of what actually happened. I’m not pointing fingers, I’m not trying to hang anyone out to dry, I suppose, but I am telling the story and people can draw their own judgement from that.”.
Forgotten Lives is for sale in Banner Books, Ennistymon and Kilrush or on their website.
