There are numerous tragic threads to this bizarre and shocking story but I am aware of one that involves my family, namely my maternal grandfathers first cousin Eamon de Valera, Dev as he was known, was a political force in Ireland for most of the 20th century. He is commonly blamed for allowing Ireland to stagnate culturally and economically and i allowing the Catholic church to dictate most public policy. These homes for illegitimate children were horrific,as this article describes,and many,many children suffered and died unnecessarily because of the recalcitrance of the church and government. Unwed mothers-many if not most of whom were victims of rape or incest-were treated horribly by the church,as were their babies and children. It is such a great irony that historians are now in agreement that Dev himself was probably an illegitimate child. His mother, Katherine (Kate) Coll, immigrated to New York in the early 1880s. She ostensibly married a Juan Vivion deValera,a Spanish sea captain, and bore his child in 1883,before becoming widowed when deValera was drowned at sea. Extensive research has pretty much proven what was long suspected by many,namely that Juan Vivion deValera was most probably a figment of Kate Colls imagination,a fictitious charcter and story to save herself and her newborn son from the fate of so many unwed mothers with illegitimate children:scorn,ostracism,poverty and unending shame. What an irony that Dev was later to lead an Ireland where such cruelty toward innocents was the order of the day. He could have very easily ended up in one of these horrific homes,being separated from his beloved mother and suffering and then dying young in an unmarked grave. he could easily have led a change in public policy towards children born to unwed mothers. That he failed to do so speaks most probably to his own fears of being found out. What a sad legacy.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 07:41:28 +0000
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