BACK IN 2015, TheJournal.ie spoke to Clondalkin independent councillor Francis Timmons about his upbringing in a Dublin home run by the Sisters of Charity, and his calls for the health minister to address the issue of adequate redress and compensation for survivors of such homes.
Not so long ago, he received a call from a woman who said that she had worked in Madonna House in Blackrock and that had seen his picture and read about his story.
“A lady from the country contacted me,” he told us earlier this week. “She said she’d seen the story on TheJournal.ie.”
She had done a work experience placement at Madonna House during the 1970s, and said she wanted to pass on some photos she had taken from the time.
“That was such a nice letter to get, ” he said. “She remembered a few details about the time too that I would never have remembered, being so young at the time.”
Timmons now has several pictures dating back to the time, including a couple of him as a toddler and one of his mother.
He said: “A couple of years ago, I had nothing from that time. Now I have these, and they are priceless.
You know how people ask what you’d take if your house went on fire? I’d take these in a heartbeat. If you don’t have a lot of stuff from that time, pictures become so important.
Timmons was speaking to TheJournal.ie this week about his discovery that he had been an unwitting patient on two vaccines trials when he was a child growing up in Madonna House. You can read about that here.
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