The weather has improved today. Over the holidays, a couple of packages were delivered to Mail Boxes Etc. for me, so I take this as an opportunity to get out of the apartment for a short walk. The streets of Dublin are subdued, with noticeably less traffic and pedestrians out and about. On the way back I cut to the River Liffey and walk along City Quay (pronounced “key”) to snap a few photos. There are about a dozen stretches on both sides of the Liffey that are given different “quay” names, which I’m still learning.
The Jeanie Johnston, a replica of a three masted “famine” ship built in 1847, which serves as an ocean-going sail training vessel at sea, converts into a living history museum on 19th century emigration in port, and is also used as a corporate event venue:
The dome of the Customs House:
The big news today in Ireland is the publication of a 3,000 page “Mother and Baby Homes Report.” The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation was established in 2015 by the Irish government after news reports in 2014 that the bodies of 796 babies and children may have been interred in an unrecorded mass grave at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway. The Commission broadened their investigation to 14 homes operated by various orders of Catholic nuns and 4 state-operated homes that housed women and girls who had become pregnant outside of marriage, and their babies. The women were stigmatized as sinners, admitted to the homes by their families out of shame, and many of their children were neglected and/or given up to adoption (or some say trafficked) to families in U.S. Upwards of 9,000 children died in the homes at much high mortality rates than the rest of Irish society. Some 56,000 unmarried mothers and 57,000 children passed through the homes during the period examined by the commission, 1920-1998. The report says that a further 25,000 women and a larger number of children were likely to have been resident in the county homes that were not examined by the Commission. Taoiseach Micheál Martin has referred to this as a “dark, difficult and shameful chapter of recent Irish history,” with which Irish society is now reckoning. There’s a push for the government to guarantee victims access to their files and possibly even some sort of reparations.
COVID numbers continue to worsen in Ireland with more ICU patients now than in any previous time during the pandemic. There is a proposal to require travelers who wish to enter Ireland to have a negative COVID-19 test — this is likely to be approved by the cabinet. Here’s a graphic from The Irish Times depicting the dramatic increase in cases over the last 17 days compared to the first, second, and third 100 day periods:
Until next time….
