Galway In Days Gone By

Shock at exhumations

Every person of the Christian mind, no matter what his politics, religion, etc., may be, must be shocked at the unchristian action of the Irish military in removing the dead bodies of executed men from the graves in Tuam workhouse barracks last week.

The affair is nauseating in the minds of all Christian minded people and the people of Tuam, at any rate, will not be satisfied until a public explanation of the matter is given in the Dáil.

It cannot be impressed too strongly that there are many in this country who have still some hope that Christianity and civilisation is not slipping away from us. A more unchristian and uncivilised act than the exhumation of those bodies from Tuam barrack graves to Athlone graves, or wherever the reinternment took place, could not be conceived.

The people of Tuam, through their representatives on the Town Board, have protested strongly and called on the T.D.s for Galway to raise the matter in the Dáil on reopening in October. Differences in politics have nothing to say to an act of this kind.

It violates Christian principles, and for the good of society, a clear and satisfactory explanation for such an unusual and desecrating act should be made public as soon as possible.

Pictured: President Mary Robinson chatting with some of the sisters during her visit to the Poor Clare Convent at Nuns' Island in March 1992 as the order celebrated 350 years in Galway.