October 31, 2017

29 October 2017. Tuam Historian Catherine Corless is to be presented with a Special Award for Investigative Research at the NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards which are taking place next Thursday, 2 November in the Mansion House, Dublin.

This one-off award, will honour Ms Corless’ painstaking research which brought news of the children’s mass grave at the Tuam Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home to the world’s attention. The research prompted the launch of a statutory commission of investigation into the burial of infants at the site.

Accepting the NewsBrands Ireland Special Award for Investigative Research, Ms Corless said:

“I am very privileged to be offered this Special Award for Investigative Research from NewsBrands Ireland. My initial research into the Tuam Mother and Baby Home was to be just a simple synopsis of the history of the Home itself for the 2012 local Tuam Historical Annual (JOTS),  but the more I delved into the Archives and listened to Survivor’s accounts of their lives there, I realized this story deserved much more intensive research.

Most of value was to interview the Survivors from the Tuam Home, and the mothers who gave birth there.  I got a true insight into what life was like in the Home, from an old taped interview of a woman who lived her whole life in the Home, and her account was heart rending. This was a story that needed exposure and it was catapulted throughout the world through the power of the Press.   I thank the Press and all the Media outlets for keeping the Tuam Story alive, for it is an ongoing process to find answers as we await the final report from the Commission of Inquiry.”

Speaking about the award, NewsBrands Ireland Chairman Vincent Crowley said: 

“This special award is in recognition of Catherine’s vital part in unearthing both the tragedy and the extent of what had happened in the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. Without her work, the Press would not have been able to tell the story and it would have remained hidden with the hundreds of innocent souls away from public sight.”

The 2017 NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards takes place on Thursday, 2 November at the Mansion House, Dublin. Special guest at the awards will be Denis Naughton TD, Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

Winners will be presented across 24 categories including the overall NewsBrands Ireland Journalist of the Year 2017.

For further information please contact Lisa Buckley, NewsBrands Ireland on 087 7779259