Preparatory work begins ahead of mass grave excavation at mother and baby home
In 2014, research led by local historian Catherine Corless indicated that 796 babies and young children were buried in a sewage system at the Co Galway institution across that time period.
The St Mary's home for unmarried mothers and their children was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic nuns.
In 2021, Irish premier Micheal Martin delivered an apology on behalf of the state for the treatment of women and children who were housed in mother and baby homes across Ireland.
The Bon Secours Sisters also offered a 'profound apology' after acknowledging the order had 'failed to protect the inherent dignity' of women and children in the Tuam home.
Speaking about the work on Monday, Mr Martin said: 'it's very significant day in respect of the excavation in Tuam.
'It's a very, very difficult harrowing story and situation. We have to wait to see what unfolds now as a result of the excavation.'
The work at the burial site, which is being undertaken by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT), will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible, and re-interment of the remains at the site.
The pre-excavation work includes the installation of a 2.4-metre hoarding around the perimeter.
The site will now be subject to security monitoring on a 24-hour basis to ensure the forensic integrity of the site during the excavation.
The excavation is anticipated to last two years.
Ahead of the preparatory work, Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the ODAIT, described the planned excavation as 'unique and incredibly complex'.
One of Mr MacSweeney's main responsibilities will be to ensure any remains that are uncovered are re-interred in a respectful and appropriate way.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
7 hours ago
- BBC News
The Interview Catherine Corless, Irish historian: I'm going to be a voice for these children
I'm going to be a voice for these children Chris Page, the BBC's Ireland correspondent speaks to the Irish historian Catherine Corless, who has changed history in her own country. When she began to research a long-closed mother and baby home near where she lived, she encountered local resistance. But her dogged investigation led to the discovery that hundreds of babies and young children were buried in mass, unmarked graves inside a disused sewage tank at the site in Tuam, Ireland. Her work led to the discovery of the scandal of Ireland's historical mother and baby institutions, which housed unmarried mothers and their babies at a time when they were ostracized by Irish society and often their families too. An inquiry launched by the Irish government into the network of homes concluded about nine thousand children died in the eighteen homes investigated. The revelation led to apologies from the Catholic Church in Ireland, the Irish Government, the council which owned the home in Tuam and the religious order which ran the home. The order has also contributed millions of dollars to a compensation scheme, and to the excavation now underway in Tuam. Thank you to Chris Page and Chrissie McGlinchey from the BBC's Ireland bureau for their help in making this programme. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service, Mondays and Wednesdays at 0700 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out twice a week on BBC Sounds, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Presenter: Chris Page Producers: Lucy Sheppard and Chrissie McGlinchey Editor: Nick Holland Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@ and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media. (Image: Catherine Corless. Credit: PA)
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- The Guardian
Dig begins at site in Ireland believed to hold remains of nearly 800 infants
A century after Irish nuns first began to bury hundreds of infants in what would become a mass, unmarked grave, archaeologists and other specialists will start excavating the site in Tuam, County Galway. A mechanical digger is to slowly start scraping earth on Monday at the 5,000-sq-metre (53,820 sq ft) site where the Bon Secours order is believed have interred 796 infants who died at the St Mary's mother and baby home between 1925 and 1961. The operation, which is expected to last two years, marks a new stage in Ireland's reckoning with the abuse and neglect of children in religious and state-run institutions, especially those who bore the stigma of being born out of wedlock. Their treatment has been called a stain on the nation's conscience. At St Mary's in Tuam, a so-called mother and baby home where young women and girls were sent to give birth, some infants were buried in a disused subterranean septic tank. There were no burial records and the deaths were ignored until a decade ago when Catherine Corless, a local historian, uncovered death certificates for 796 infants. This led to a judicial commission, a state apology and a promise to excavate the site. 'I'm very, very relieved to know it's happening at last,' said Corless. 'It was a very long haul. It's a bit overwhelming. I've been so long waiting for it. It's a joy for me and for the families that are waiting in hope that they will find their own little relative.' Much of the excavation site – which is in the middle of a housing estate – has been sealed off and the office of the director for authorised intervention in Tuam (Odait) group has done preparatory work. The 18-strong team, which includes archaeologists, anthropologists and other forensic experts from Ireland, the UK, Australia, Colombia, Spain and the US, is led by Daniel MacSweeney, a former International Committee of the Red Cross envoy. The operation aims to recover all the human remains, attempt to identify them, return them to their families and rebury them with dignity. The size and location of the site, water filtration and the co-mingling of remains, plus the proximity of other remains from the 19th-century famine and workhouse eras, made the operation highly complex, said MacSweeney. 'All these together really compound the challenge,' he said. 'This is a recovery to a forensic standard, so it's like a police investigation scene. Our team includes people with expertise in crime scene management. The legislation requires us to call the coroner or the Gardaí [police] if we find evidence of unnatural death.' The digger, which has a special bucket without teeth, would work slowly and pause when archaeologists saw something of interest, said MacSweeney. The team has offices and a laboratory on site that can do preliminary analysis before sending material to a bigger lab. Some relatives of the dead children have provided DNA samples. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion The Bon Secours nuns ran their institution with sanction by the Irish state, which overlooked deprivation, misogyny and high infant mortality rates. The Tuam home closed in 1961 and was demolished; a housing estate was built on the site. In 1975 two boys foraging for apples stumbled across human bones in the abandoned septic tank. Authorities took no action until Corless, a former textile factory secretary with an interest in local history, published research that was picked up by local and then national and international media in 2014. The actor Liam Neeson is co-producing a feature film that is to begin filming in Galway later this year. Corless said she hoped the remains, which are about 2 metres below the surface, would be identified and pieced together. 'So many little bones are commingled because water got in. Hopefully they'll be able to match them.' She has passed her records to the excavation team. 'They're top experts in their fields and are just as emotional about the whole thing as I am. They really want to get to the bottom of this.'
ITV News
a day ago
- ITV News
Works begins on Tuam grave in bid to identify 796 babies and children in sewage system
A major excavation of a mass, unmarked grave of babies and young children in the west of Ireland began on excavation of the site of St Mary's mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway, will try to identify the remains of infants who died at the home between 1925 and and other specialists have started working at the site as part of its attempt to exhume and identify human remains. In 2014, research led by local historian Catherine Corless indicated that 796 babies and young children were buried in a sewage system at the Co Galway institution across that time Mary's home for unmarried mothers and their children was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic 2021, Irish premier Micheal Martin apologised on behalf of the state for the treatment of women and children who were housed in mother and baby homes across Bon Secours Sisters also offered a 'profound apology' after acknowledging the order had 'failed to protect the inherent dignity' of women and children in the Tuam process, which started on Monday, is expected to last two work at the burial site, which is being undertaken by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention Tuam (ODAIT), will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible and re-interment of the remains at the site, surrounded by a 2.4 metre-high hoarding, is security monitored on a 24-hour basis to ensure the forensic integrity of the site during the Corrigan, who discovered that she had two older brothers who were born while her mother was a resident at the Tuam home, said Monday was a welcome but difficult Corrigan has instructed KRW Law to launch High Court civil proceedings against a number of agencies and institutions including the Order of The Sisters of Bon Secours over the circumstances surrounding the death and disappearance of her brothers.'Whilst it's a relief to see work started on the site it's really only the latest stage in what is still a long road for all of us,' she said.'I accept there are technical issues arising from the exhumation which may impact on decision-making by the attorney general, the coroner in Galway and the gardai and others, but the least we can expect now is expressions of support plus a commitment to reviewing all previous decision-making.'I won't rest until I see justice for my two brothers who not only need a proper Christian burial but also the full rigours of the law both domestic and international applied.'What happened at Tuam was criminal, so there needs to be both church and state accountability. The Government can't just do a Pontius Pilate and wash their hands of this and blame the nuns and the Catholic Church.'They have a complicity in all of this as well. Any solutions which exclude the state won't be tolerated by me or anyone else.'We've fought far too hard to get to here and we certainly don't want to see this important excavation work carried out in vain.'There are so many people I want to thank, including Jim McVeigh from Belfast and our lawyers, including KRW Law led by Chris Stanley, together with Carl Buckley of Guernica Chambers, whose guidance and direction has helped to chart a path through many of the legal complexities.'We have much more work to be done before we can feel anywhere near satisfied.'Speaking on the opening day of excavations, Irish human rights lawyer Kevin Winters said: 'Annie (Anna) Corrigan, like so many others, has waited a long time for this moment. It's intensely emotional for her but also frustrating given the gnawing sense of unfinished business.'She welcomes the excavation work, which is likely to take anything up to two years to complete, and sees today as an opportunity to again call upon the Irish Government to engage on unresolved legal issues connected to the recovery process.'Over 18 months ago we wrote to gardai, including local gardai, at Tuam urging them to treat the scandal as a criminal investigation.'Despite repeated requests from both Annie and ourselves they failed to assign gardai Pulse investigation numbers until last month when she received confirmation they would issue.'We have written to gardai in Galway urging the immediate release of the numbers. The industrial volumes of buried infants and the manner in which they met their fate clearly points to criminality.'It will be momentous to see the assignment of Pulse record numbers as that crystallises formal criminal investigation status upon this historical human rights debacle.'Equally important is the requirement that the coroner in Galway upscales intervention after opening up the case as far back as 2017.'There needs to be an inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of Annie's siblings and all the other unexplained deaths.'We are also instructed by Annie to launch High Court civil proceedings against a number of agencies and institutions including the Order of The Sisters of Bon Secours over the circumstances surrounding the death and disappearance of Annie's brothers.'There was a suffocating toxicity about the historic Irish state-Catholic Church relationship which helped foment the horrors of Tuam.'However this almost mediaeval barbarity occurred within living memory.'Tuam is in danger of becoming a byword for cruelty unless both state agencies and the church respond promptly and transparently to the latest legal agitation touching upon criminal investigation; inquests and compensation.' Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know.
