Liam Neeson involved in new movie revealing story behind Tuam babies

Liam Neeson is involved in a new film that tells the story behind the Tuam babies scandal. English actor Monica Dolan plays Catherine Corless in the movie.

The story of the amateur historian whose research helped expose the Tuam babies scandal is now being brought to the big screen, with help from actor Liam Neeson.

The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, an institution for unmarried mothers and their children, operated from 1925 to 1961.

It drew international attention in 2014 after local historian Catherine Corless found 796 death certificates for children and babies who died there, but no burial records.

A 2017 article in the New York Times about Corless’ journey left Neeson in a “quiet rage,” he told RTÉ’s Late Late Show, prompting him to use his influence in the film industry to help bring the story to screen and to become a co-producer.

“I thought if my standing in the film business is anything at all I’d love this to become a film so more people could see it and we could share this atrocity,” Neeson said.

Corless said she later received a call from New York Times writer Dan Barry, who told her: “Listen, Liam Neeson may be giving you a call and he’d like to speak to you and get permission to do the film.”

Nine years on, the film The Lost Children of Tuam is now in cinemas.

The film tells how Corless began investigating a former institution for unmarried mothers and their children in Tuam, County Galway, and uncovers the hidden history of neglect and loss.

It also looks at how Corless was met with silence from church and state as she pursued a campaign for justice.

“The way the film is done, it’s just true to life,” Corless told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme, calling it “fantastic”.

Corless said director Frank Berry “really wanted” the film “to be true and they stuck to the truth”.

“It shows the diversity between people in power and ordinary people like myself struggling to get a story out there that I knew was true, I had all the evidence,” she said.

A team is currently excavating the site of the former institution. In June, it was reported that they had found another eight sets of infant remains, taking the total recovered to 77.

“I really had to fight for it to come to this stage, not for the film exactly, also the excavation in Tuam is going ahead and the exhumation. I fought years with the denial from authorities that anything wrong happened,” Corless said.

“It’s something I had to keep working on and that’s portrayed very, very well in the film.”

Dolan had to learn a Galway accent for the role of Corless.

Corless said Dolan developed the accent “very well”.

“She wanted to actually become me, to get into the knitty gritty of the efforts that I had to put in,” Corless said of Dolan.

“She portrayed me just as myself. I was amazed at what she was able to do,” she said.

“She went to the extremes, really, to get the feeling and the emotion I went through and the struggle.”

Corless added: “She did it so, so well, I must say that, she really did.”

The Lost Children of Tuam opened in cinemas in Ireland on 25 September and is due for UK release on 9 October.