Religion
In reply to the discussion: Tuam mother and baby home: the trouble with the septic tank story [View all]struggle4progress
(118,417 posts)the figures we currently have don't suggest that the vast majority actually could
The mothers who we might expect to leave would be those who could pay the 100 pound fee in lieu of working a year: the fee, as I have pointed out, probably translates to sometime like $12 000 in current dollars. Mother from middle-class backgrounds, with supportive families, might have access to such cash reserves; mothers from poor backgrounds would certainly not. We are unlikely to obtain much information on the mothers for privacy reasons. If records still exist, we might be able to learn how many paid the 100 pound fee, as well as how many children were placed for adoption and how many were sent into the equivalent of foster care or sent to the so-called industrial schools