Catherine Corless has revealed she kept a visit from Liam Neeson top secret for fear of a backlash from “bible bashers”.
The Tuam babies campaigner spent hours sat at her kitchen table with the Co Antrim actor discussing the scandal for an upcoming movie.
But the historian, who in 2014 uncovered 796 babies buried in a septic tank at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, said she had to keep it under wraps.
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She told Irish Sunday Mirror: “I was told by journalist Dan Barry that after reading his article in The New York Times Liam Neeson wanted to ring me.
“I was like ‘yeah right’, but he did ring me and we have talked a few times since then.
“The first time he rang I said ‘is that really you’ and he said ‘sure it is’ in his Northern Ireland accent.
“He has never lost it. He’s just so down to earth, he’s just lovely. I was delighted to talk to him.”
Taken star Neeson, 70, has been collaborating with Galway native Catherine, who is co-producing the upcoming film, for almost four years.
But Catherine, 68, revealed how they had to hatch a plan in secret for him to come and visit because she has faced a backlash from detractors.
She said: “He was coming to visit, back to Antrim and he said he would hop down.
“We had a lovely chat with him at the kitchen table for about three hours.
“The family were here to meet him and were thrilled.
“The way things were at the time I was really afraid people who were against me would say ‘she’s after the publicity’.
“We kept it quiet because I was adamant to keep the focus on the babies and what I was doing, because people would jump ahead and destroy me really.
“The bible belt [in America] were adamant that I was a glory seeker... they kept publicising that over there, the bible bashers.
“It was kept very, very quiet. It was just the family.”
Ballymena-born Neeson, who was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in Schindler’s List, said though he’s made more than 90 films he’s never felt so strongly about a project.
Speaking on The Late Late Show he said: “I never felt this way before.
“I was struck by the humility of this ordinary and extraordinary woman.
“So we’re going to do this film, we have a wonderful writer on board.” Filming is due to start within the next year but Catherine said she has no idea who will play her in the movie.
But she said there are big names reading the script and she is confident the project is in safe hands.
She added: “I have always liked him [Liam] because there is a kindness in him.
“They keep me in the loop and they are at the stage where the script is well accepted now, they changed it a few times.
“There are a few good people reading the script, [they] are waiting to see if they are available.
“I’m not told any big details at all, they just keep thanking me for my patience.”
The movie, which will probably be filmed in Tuam and Ardmore Studios in Co Wicklow, could start in 2023.
Catherine said: “It wasn’t what I set out to do but all the better to get the story out there.
“The location manager has already been around Tuam, he was here about two months ago and took shots of everything and everywhere in Tuam.
“I probably won’t watch it. I have never watched a documentary that I have been on as I will only find flaws, in how I look and what I have said.” Catherine said that although she avoids publicity her kids and grandchildren love her being a ‘celebrity’.
She laughed: “My kids are delighted and even the grandchildren are very interested and quite proud to have a famous gran.
“I would be the last person in Ireland who would want to be out there at the front.
“My husband is still trying to get to know me.”
Catherine said all her attention is now focused on having the remains excavated from the mass grave and reunited with loved ones if possible.
She added: “We are very happy to have it at this stage after all the lobbying and pressure and begging over all those years.
“It should have been done really way back in 2017 when they found the little remains and found they were the home babies and carbon dated them.
“But after the excavation they went back and covered it all in until the Commission of Enquiry finished their investigation. When you go in there now it’s a lovely area, the grotto, the flowers, but underneath it’s horrific what they did.
“They will need to lay out all the little remains so they can try and put them back together like a jigsaw.
“Unfortunately because those babies have been placed down one on top of the other without a coffin and water has managed to seep into the tank they are all mixed.
“It will be a job for the archaeologists to put them back together, but it’s not impossible, it can be done and has been done before.”
Catherine said she hopes for the excavation of the site to begin later this year after the Burials Bill was signed into law.
She added: “They are hoping to break ground maybe October or November but I believe it will go into spring.
“They have an idea that all in all, to have everything done like promised, might take up to two years.”
But she vowed that she will never give up helping those affected. She added: “It’s never ending. There
are always people contacting me looking for help to trace family.
“I get requests from Canada and England. At the moment I’m working on five different cases but I don’t mind at all.
“It’s gratifying for me just to find people and to get the better of the horrible situation, to give some closure.”
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