IN 1952 Philomena Lee gave birth to a son in a convent at Roscrea in Country Tipperary, Ireland. After she became pregnant, her family had her “put away” with the nuns.
Martin Sixsmith with Philomena Lee. Photograph: Graham Turner
When her baby, Anthony, was born, the mother superior threatened Philomena with damnation if ever she breathed a word about her “guilty secret”. Terrified, she kept it quiet for more than half a century.
All my life I couldn’t tell anyone. We were so browbeaten, it was such a sin. It was an awful thing to have a baby out of wedlock … Over the years I would say ‘I will tell them, I will tell them’ but it was so ingrained deep down in my heart that I mustn’t tell anybody, that I never did.
Journalist Martin Sixsmith, who met Philomena in 2004 and has now written a book entitled The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, was intrigued to know why the nuns had been so insistent on the importance of silence and secrecy.
In a report in yesterday’s Guardian, Sixmith revealed:
Philomena was one of thousands of Irish women sent to convents in the 1950s and 60s, taken away from their homes and families because the Catholic Church said single mothers were moral degenerates who could not be allowed to keep their children.
Such was the power of the church, and of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, that the state bowed before its demands, ceding responsibility for the mothers and babies to the nuns. For them it was not only a matter of sin and morality, but one of pounds, shillings and pence. At the time young Anthony Lee was born, I discovered that the Irish government was paying the Catholic church a pound a week for every woman in its care, and two shillings and sixpence for every baby.
And that was not all. After giving birth, the girls were allowed to leave the convent only if they or their family could pay the nuns £100. It was a substantial sum, and those who couldn’t afford it – the vast majority – were kept in the convent for three years, working in kitchens, greenhouses and laundries or making rosary beads and religious artefacts, while the church kept the profits from their labour.
He added:
Even crueller than the work was the fact that mothers had to care for their children, developing maternal ties and affection that were to be torn asunder at the end of their three-year sentence. Like all the other girls, Philomena Lee was made to sign a renunciation document agreeing to give up her three-year-old son and swearing on oath: ‘I relinquish full claim for ever to my child and surrender him to Sister Barbara, Superioress of Sean Ross Abbey. The purpose is to enable Sister Barbara to make my child available for adoption to any person she considers fit and proper, inside or outside the state. I further undertake never to attempt to see, interfere with or make any claim to the said child at any future time.’
Anthony, aged three, was adopted by a Catholic couple, Doc and Marge Hess from St Louis, Missouri. His mum, who had been disowned by her family, tried for years to trace him, but without success. After meeting Philomena, Sixsmith agreed to help trace her son – and uncovered another tragic dimension to the story.
Anthony, renamed Michael Hess, became a successful be a lawyer – and a leading light in the Republican Party. When George Bush Sr became president, he made Mike his chief legal counsel.
But Michael Hess was gay.
Wrote Sixsmith:
He was obliged to conceal his sexuality in a party that was rabidly homophobic. He was tormented by the double life he was forced to lead and by the fact that his work was entrenching in power a party that victimised his friends and lovers.
He was tormented, too, by the absence of his mother and by the orphan’s sense of helplessness: he didn’t know where he came from, didn’t know who he was or how he should live. He felt unloved by his adoptive father and brothers; he felt guilt over his sexuality and he had a series of stormy relationships. A spurned lover burned himself to death because Mike rejected him.
Michael plunged into alcohol, drugs and unbridled sexual indulgence. His behaviour brought with it the terrible fear of exposure that would destroy him as a senior Republican official, but he could not stop himself. On one of his lost weekends he became infected with HIV, and he died in August 1995.
In his search for Philomena’s son, Sixsmith:
Discovered the thousands of other lost “orphans” whose lives were changed for ever by the greed and hypocrisy of church and state. Like Michael, many of them are still looking for their parents and, through them, for their identity.
The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith is published by Macmillan, £12.99. To order a copy for £11.99 with free UK p&p, go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 684
Related to the Catholic Church’s appalling treatment of unmarried mums is the abuse suffered by children in Catholic children’s homes. Here is a link to Radio4 ‘Law in Action’ programme about the redress scheme in Ireland relating to that abuse.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
September 20th, 2009 at 10:13 am
How many of these stories have to come out before regular Catholics see through the Churche's lies and leave? So many times I have seen stories about the undiluted evil of the RCC covered on atheist websites where the comment thread has been invaded by a Catholic attempting to defend the indefencible.
September 20th, 2009 at 11:53 am
The really galling thing about this terrible story is that this woman has, according to the Guardian report, now embraced the Catholic Church. WTF!
September 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Did other readers see the film "The Magdalene Sisters"? It was very moving. There is a Wikipedia page about it; but look up Magdalene Asylum on Wikipedia if you want to know how REAL "Christian Sisters" bring up chldren!!
September 20th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
"The woman who has never known the pollution of a single wicked thought – the woman whose virgin bosom has never been crossed by the shadow of a thought of sin! – the woman breathing purity, innocence and grace, receives the woman whose breath is the pestilence of hell!" Nice people!!
September 20th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I agree Stoneyground. This story is appalling and unfortunately is in no way an isolated incident. As you say, how many times do we have to hear about such disgraceful behaviour before people start to come to their senses?
I think those who believe are too brainwashed to think for themselves most of the time, afterall, this is exactly the way in which religion tries to program people to behave. They are too ready to believe that no matter what, god is good and religion is good and in this case the catholic church is good as are most of those who work for it, but will probably make the excuse that there is always a bad apple in the cart or that these people were only trying to do the right thing for those involved within the social constricts of the time.
Unfortunately, they will not (or at least not too many of them) realise that this is the way religion is. It is what religion is about. Cruelty, oppression, control, power and money (please feel free to correct me if I missed any). We are constantly hearing about terrible mistreatment of people at the hands of religions and their followers. It's well past time people woke up to the truth.
On Friday night, I was watching a debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza (a mismatch if ever there was one, but it makes for very entertaining viewing) where D'Souza, a catholic, argued that we owe our morality to christianity. Thank fuck he's a silly twat and that's just not true. Can you imagine if we did actually take our moral guidance from the bible? Shit!
BTW, why the fuck does D'Souza keep on doing this to himself? Hitchens destroys him every time!
Godless not gormless
September 20th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I did watch The Magdalene Sisters some time ago and found the film very disturbing. This film should be on the school syllabus as a shining example of religion – and cruelty.
September 20th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
A lot of people, being mainly moral and compassionate beings themselves, just can't believe that this sort of thing is possible, so are ready to believe the stories put about by the Catholic hierarchy that these memoirs are being written by women who are either mentally ill, lying with a view to pecuniary gain, or else have some axe to grind regarding the Catholic Church. Sadly, there has been a glut of similar "poor me" memoirs of recent years, some of which have undoubtedly been "embellished" to say the very least, which just plays into the hands of these evil, lying bastards!
September 20th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
That a victim of nunfucking would join the Bush administration is further evidence of how antihuman the Catholic Church really is. "Sane Republicanazi" is as oxymoronic as "sane godworshipper".
September 20th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
it's a simple of this the Catholic Church is a lying, subverting, browbeating, pedophile protecting bunch of celibate degenerates in dresses who are rolling with cash. Wherever their power filled scabious hands touch…evil follows… Ireland, Spain, Italy and Germany were there prime stalking grounds in the 50's and 60's …now their focus is Africa, Brazil and the Far East. Who know's what tales of abuse, control and evil we'll hear from there in 20 years time.
It's time this Evil Empire has it's nation status revoked and demoted to the sidelines where it's lies, hypocrisy and money grabbing will be allowed to die out and is bankrupted like it's morals.
My words do not express enough my intense loathing of this organisation.
September 20th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
To be fair, there are plenty of people who have an "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar" sort of religious attachment and don't subscribe to the "inerrant word" nonsense and even openly doubt the divinity of Jesus. For these people their religion is not a cover for any hate agenda.
September 20th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Cruelty, oppression, control, power money and believing things that are self evidently untrue. Oh and hypocrisy you forgot hypocrisy. pointless rule and pointless rituals, I'd better go or I'll be here all night.
September 20th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
CNG/Stoneyground
I don't know if you clicked through to the Guardian article itself but the kick in the tail of this story is that the mother "has started to go to mass again……….she blames herself for everything…….".
When an orgainisation can abuse people to such an extent and then have those same people blame themselves for the abuse, that's real power (of a very scary kind).
September 20th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
I was deeply moved by that one. It's terrible what those girls went through.
September 20th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
barriejohn beat me to it!!
September 20th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
It's disgusting that people actually consider such abuse part of a desirable moral system. How many lives have been, and will be, ruined, before we send religion the way of the dinosaurs?
September 20th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Their chief weapon is oppression. Oppression and cruelty. Their TWO chief weapons…I think I'd better start again!
September 21st, 2009 at 8:18 am
"Give me a child to the age of seven and I'll give you the man." (Supposedly Jesuit axiom, but probably much older.) How can she possibly believe that she could have done anything else – she was powerless in that situation!
BTW Why have all these new comments suddenly sprung up that are 14 or 15 hours old? I've had no notification of them even now.
September 21st, 2009 at 8:29 am
Everyone is now looking to the Third World to see how they can be exploited – just look at the tobacco companies! I was hauled over the coals on The BEattitude for accusing the drug companies of doing the same with their wretched tranquillizers, as I couldn't really come up with reliable, objective evidence for this claim. I know I've seen documentaries and newspaper articles stating that they are pushing these products in Africa and elsewhere, now that the Western world has woken up to their dangers, but that is really just hearsay now. Does anyone have any more reliable information?
September 21st, 2009 at 9:01 am
"He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother."
September 21st, 2009 at 2:49 pm
It just shows that there may be a sicko in each and every one of us, thanks to the miracle of religion. I'm glad my parents were just too rational to leave that bit of education out of my life.
September 21st, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I hear there's a little bit of the priest in every altar boy, HD!!
September 21st, 2009 at 9:57 pm
No I van, I hadn't looked at the actual story itself and I'm amazed and dismayed to find that she is now going to mass again. She is actually giving support to this evil organisation and watering down what should be the effect of the story. It will give catholics who read about this, reason to keep the faith because they'll see that she doesn't hold the catholic church responsible. It's just unbelievable how gullible people can be!
Godless not gormless
September 21st, 2009 at 9:57 pm
No Ivan, I hadn't looked at the actual story itself and I'm amazed and dismayed to find that she is now going to mass again. She is actually giving support to this evil organisation and watering down what should be the effect of the story. It will give catholics who read about this, reason to keep the faith because they'll see that she doesn't hold the catholic church responsible. It's just unbelievable how gullible people can be!
Godless not gormless
October 18th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I went to a Catholic boarding school in Africa for six years in the early 60s, run by nuns. As a Protestant I was almost brainwashed into thinking that I was on a level with the animals. I have no clue whether any of us have souls, and care not, but the general view was that the Catholic children were far superior to us and it was their duty to 'save' us. Beyond making us feel less than the dirt beneath their feet, we all (catholics and non-catholics alike) suffered physical and mental cruelty that was far beyond that of mere punishment for misbehaving., and the best part of it was, our parents didn't, to a person, believe us.
October 18th, 2009 at 10:29 am
As a result of those years in that convent so many of us married men who were deviant to some degree. Many married men who were alcoholics; I am married to a man who controls every aspect of my life in a total and unbending way; a close friend of mine from those years first married an alcoholic and then had a long relationship with and a son by a married man who was also a control freak, he sexually abused her for years until she had the desperate courage to evict him from her life. A large number of the girls from my era and later are divorced having come out of their troubled relationships. This is depsite the fact that we were reared to believe that divorce is very wrong. I admire their resourcefullness and courage, I posses neither.