It absolutely has - OP herself compares what happened to Bosnia etc. Betsy Og (normally sensible) hopes the nuns rot in hell. About 10 stories in the Sindo from Emer O'Kelly to Gene Kerrigan outdoing themselves in demonization of the nuns. We have been easily provoked by a British newspaper raking up in hysterical terms what has actually been publicly known, even discussed in Dail Eireann, for at least 80 years. At last a sign of someone breaking ranks - Ho Chi Quinn is condemning the international hysteria. He, like the nuns, welcomes an enquiry. And I expect that just as for Bethany we will get a much more contextualised interpretation of these events.
A very interesting Sindo article quotes from some Scottish doctor visiting these homes in 1955. He says the "County Council paid the home £1 per week for each child and mother. That is a pittance." And indeed it was, I reckon about €50 per week in today's money.
Purple describes the State as outsourcing this problem of society. Good analogy. How many takers would there have been at £1 per week? The nuns were the only takers in town, and now we damn them to rot in hell for taking on the job.
This whole sordid mess was of course a product of a suffocating confessional society. But don't just blame the Pope of Rome and his clergy. Blame De Valera, blame Padraic Perase, blame the vast majority of the citizenry who wallowed in this stifling culture. Scapegoating the nuns and asking why they didn't die of malnutrition is a grotesque cop out.