Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets Review
Clair Wills investigates the story of a lost cousin and sheds light on the appalling treatment of unmarried mothers and their babies in Ireland.
A Difficult Book to Read
Missing Persons, a book by Clair Wills, must have been a very difficult book to write, as it is equally difficult to read. The book is expertly crafted and manages to convey its effects and revelations skillfully. However, the reader is faced with absorbing the pain and sadness of the stories it tells.
All families have secrets and sorrows, acknowledged by Clair Wills. Most people choose to leave these matters undisturbed, but Wills takes on the challenge of exploring her own family and an entire people who are burdened by guilt. However, her purpose is not to condemn them.
Discovering Dark Realities
Clair Wills, an English literature professor at Cambridge, comes from a family deeply rooted in Ireland. She explores her family's history and reveals a darker reality that was hidden away in institutions like orphanages, mother-and-baby homes, and industrial schools. These institutions, funded by the state and run by religious orders, were responsible for the mistreatment and neglect of unmarried mothers and their children.
Wills brings to life the shocking statistics surrounding these institutions. She also shares her personal discovery of her uncle impregnating a neighbor, resulting in the child being sent to an orphanage and later committing suicide. As Wills delves deeper into her family's history, she uncovers more secrets her grandmother had kept hidden.
The Sinister Power of the Catholic Church
The rise of the modern Irish Catholic Church, with its strict control over behavior and suppression of female power, played a significant role in the mistreatment of unmarried mothers. In the new Ireland, sex outside of marriage was condemned as a sin, leading to a penitentiary regime for women to atone for their actions.
Families in this new Ireland became skilled at turning a blind eye to what they knew and practiced selective ignorance. The alliance between family, church, and state created a cult of secrecy that allowed countless women and babies to go missing. This collective crime has yet to be fully addressed in Ireland.
