Neeson won’t let facts get in way of his story

RTÉ’s Late Late Show and its presenter, Patrick Kielty are back for another season, starting as usual with a bang. And true to form they seized the most memorable moment of the summer by saluting the singular achievement of the Mayo footballers. Everyone in Mayo must have been watching, after the word got out – or was deliberately leaked – that the Great Event of the summer of 2026 would be the opening item on the programme. It was a stunning tribute to the Mayo victory, to the team and to everyone involved.

Our newfound heroes did the county proud again – a dimension of this team’s success that has taken people by surprise. It isn’t just that after so long that they achieved a long-awaited All Ireland victory but they have turned out to be impressive ambassadors for the county – an unforeseen consequence of an unexpected triumph. All this and heaven too?

A dramatic change of tone followed – as is part of the proven Late Late Show methodology – with a focus on a new film, The Lost Children of Tuam, and on Catherine Corless, who did the initial research on the Tuam Babies controversy and the film star, Liam Neeson, who’s one of the producers of the film. While Catherine Corless’s involvement was well known, Neeson’s role took many by surprise.

An interview with Neeson on the RTÉ Nine o’clock News was replicated almost word for word in an immediate appearance on the Late Late Show that followed. Neeson explained that his interest in the Tuam Babies controversy and his involvement in the new film were provoked by his outrage on reading an article that outlined the Corless research into the burial of babies.

Neeson shared his rage on a number of occasions placing it firmly in the context of his Catholic upbringing – instancing the fact that he was raised a Catholic and that he had been an altar server for some years and he also said that he once considered becoming a priest (he considered it for five seconds, he said). While Neeson didn’t elaborate more precisely on the Catholic focus of his rage, it was very obvious where that focus lay. There was no need, he clearly had decided, to mention the dog that hadn’t barked. No need to specify what dimension to his disappointment with Catholicism he was happy to leave unsaid.

A successful actor, Neeson spends most of his time outside Ireland and has, he told Late Late Show, over 100 films to his credit. Becoming one of the producers on the film was a new role for him and his involvement, he explained, emanated from his rage.

It would have been interesting to know, for example, if the source or part-source of his ‘rage’ was the initial media consensus that spread like wildfire around the world. I refer to the worldwide media focus on one specific element of the Tuam Babies story – that when the Tuam babies died, instead of being respectfully buried in appropriate coffins and in appropriate graves, that they were thrown into what was a disused septic tank. That was the main news at the time and it was repeated by media all over the world but what wasn’t said on the Late Late Show was that the media consensus wasn’t actually true. And, significantly, that it has been found that there was absolutely no evidence for that conclusion. Indeed, Catherine Corless herself has made it clear that this was not the case. And the clear evidence to date of the present excavation of graves on the Tuam site is that the babies were in fact buried in appropriate coffins in appropriate graves.

It would have been interesting to know too if Neeson showed any knowledge or understanding of the wider and fuller picture that has replaced the misplaced media consensus about the fictional septic tank. For instance, it would have been interesting to know if he was aware of the role of Galway County Council in regard to the Tuam Babies, especially their failure to afford basic funding for the Mothers and Babies which has emerged and has been widely condemned. They too, it has emerged, were responsible for the Tuam Babies but their role has conveniently escaped due notice.

It would be interesting too if Neeson had shared any due reflection on the role of the families of the girls who gave birth to the children and the grim reality that in Irish society at the time only the nuns (as we know) were prepared to step up to the plate and volunteer to help when no one else came forward – including often their own families.

It would be interesting too if Neeson had considered the obvious truth that, as we know, for every child born there weren’t just mothers who needed care but fathers who (when the pressure came on) were often nowhere to be seen and nowhere to be found. And no one raged at them as being responsible in any way for their children.

I haven’t had an opportunity yet to see the film of The Lost Children of Tuam but I fear that it may lose the context of the balance in coverage that has overtaken and effectively dismissed the more widespread fictional charge of the septic tank, the blanket worldwide coverage that shameful accusation has received and the abuse that the Bon Secours Sisters have been subjected to as a result – despite the fact that when no one else came forward to help, the Sisters stepped up to the plate.

Liam Neeson, in one of his few comments, suggested that he expected that ‘millions of people will go to see The Lost Children of Tuam’. And, of course, the softest of soft interviews and the coverage devoted to it on the Late Late Show will favour those who will benefit financially from its expected success. There was a time on the Late Late Show when balance was important and when rigorous cross questioning of all those involved was accepted – as with Gay Byrne relentlessly pursuing Cardinal Cathal Daly on a famous Late, Late. For even a semblance of balance, Patrick Kielty, at the very least should have made it clear that there was no truth in the septic tank story and that there is absolutely no evidence for it.

RTÉ’s present pathetic obsession with millionaire actors is a far cry from the time when Gay Byrne would not shy away from asking the hard questions.