Summary: <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Brendan O’Neill</a> is the editor of <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Spiked Online</a>. His 2014 <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-tuam-tank-another-myth-about-evil-ireland/#.WL6LIpgrLGg" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">article that we discussed is here</a>, and the interim report of the Mother And Baby Homes Commission Of Investigations <a href="http://www.mbhcoi.ie/MBH.nsf/page/index-en" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">is here</a>.<br> The second part of my coverage of this topic will be published next week.<br> The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_infant_mortality_rate#List_by_the_CIA_World_Factbook" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">global infant mortality statistics</a> that I mentioned are here, and the historical <a href="http://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/releasespublications/documents/vitalstats/2010/chapter42010.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Irish data is here</a>.<br> Terry Prone runs the <a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/communications-clinic-records-profit-of-euro150000-122613.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">profitable</a> media consultancy the <a href="http://communicationsclinic.ie/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Communications Clinic</a>, with many <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/gardai-communications-clinic-3263726-Mar2017/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">high-profile clients</a>. Prone wrote to French TV journalist Saskia Weber, on behalf of her clients the Bon Secours Sisters who ran the Tuam home, <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/terry-prone-email-tuam-babies-site-1721252-Oct2014/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">explicitly denying that any children were buried</a> there, and pouring scorn on the work of the local historian, Catherine Corless.<br> A year earlier, Sr Marie Ryan, leader of the Bon Secours in Ireland <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/nun-lying-through-her-teeth-about-tuam-home-court-hears-1.3000196" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">wrote to the relative of a child who died at the home saying</a> that there was ‘a very good possibility that his remains were buried at the small cemetery located at the back of the home that was operated as a general grave‘. Terry Prone has refused to return calls from the podcast seeking an explanation of this, or to claify whether she contacted other journalists to discourage coverage of the story, or encourage stories that were hostile to Catherine Corless.<br> <a href="https://twitter.com/RositaBoland" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Rosita Boland</a> wrote an article for the Irish Times under the title <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/tuam-mother-and-baby-home-the-trouble-with-the-septic-tank-story-1.1823393" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Tuam mother and baby home: the trouble with the septic tank story</a> that appears to refute the original story, although in fact a close reading reveals that it largely focusses on semantic quibbles. Catherine Corless’ daughter <a href="https://twitter.com/AdrienneJoCo" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Adrienne Corless</a> wrote <a href="https://kettleontherange.com/2014/06/27/an-international-publicity-frenzy-and-my-mother/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">a long blog post taking issue</a> with Bloand’s article. The Irish Times published a long letter by Boland defending her coverage.<br> Eamon Fingleton wrote a piece for the well-known <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Forbes Magazine</a> under the title <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2014/06/09/that-story-about-irish-babies-in-a-septic-tank-is-a-media-hoax/2/#63839de42237" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Why That Story About Irish Babies “Dumped In A Septic Tank” Is A Hoax</a> in which he explicitly accused unnamed elements of the press of promoting a hoax story, and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2014/06/15/796-babies-in-a-septic-tank-does-a-hidden-anti-catholic-agenda-explain-a-global-hoax/#9fb127267eb6" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">repeated the allegation a week later</a>. I had an email exchange with Fingleton, in which he agreed, and later declined to do an interview, so I sent him these written questions:<br> <br> * Around the time you were writing the Forbes story, did you have any contact with Terry Prone?
