O'Reilly, Alison
9780717180424
In 1946, twenty-six-year-old Bridget Dolan walked up the path to the front door of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. Alone and pregnant, she was following in the footsteps of more than a century’s worth of lost souls. Shunned by society for her sins and offered no comfort for her pain, Bridget gave birth to a boy, John, who died at the home in a horrendous state of neglect less than two years later. Her second child was once again delivered at the home and was taken from her, never to be seen or heard from again. She would go on to marry a wonderful man and have a daughter, Anna Corrigan, but it was only after Bridget’s death – and in the aftermath of the explosive revelations that the remains of 796 babies had been found in a septic tank on the site of the home – that Anna discovered she had two brothers her mother had never spoken about. Was her baby brother’s body in the tank? Anna still doesn’t know. Through Anna, this book puts on the record the life of Bridget Dolan and all the forgotten women and children of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home.
