Latest news with #BonSecoursSisters
The Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Why has it taken a decade to exhume the bodies of the 800 dead babies of Tuam?
A young girl played on a swing near a mass grave as the names of hundreds of children who died in a mother-and-baby institution in Ireland were read out during a memorial service late last year. The bright day turned to dark in the time it took. Now, the playground near the site in Tuam has been dismantled and the long-awaited exhumation has begun. But why has it taken more than a decade since it emerged that those dead children were likely buried in sewage chambers on the grounds of a publicly funded institution run by nuns and the local council? A technical drawing from the 1970s of the council housing estate built on the grounds showed 'old children's burial ground' written directly above 'proposed playground'. Local authorities knew long ago. News first broke in 2014 after Catherine Corless, who was working on a history project, tracked down death certificates for nearly 800 children for whom there were almost no burial records. She had gone to the Bon Secours Sisters, the Catholic organisation that ran the home, to the local bishop and the authorities. Little was done until she went to the media. It is a vindication of Corless's work that the exhumation is taking place, but also disturbing that it was never a certainty. I had already started writing a book about survivors of Ireland's institutions for 'unmarried mothers' when a test excavation publicly confirmed 'significant human remains' at Tuam, dating to the time the nuns ran the home, between 1925 and 1961. In 2018, the public was asked what should be done. I keep thinking of the 'talking stone', a lump of grey felt handed around a public meeting organised by Galway county council, which owned the site, in a Tuam hotel. We were asked to hold it and say what we wanted to happen about a mass grave of babies. Options ranged from memorialisation alone to the full forensic excavation happening today. While it was important to talk about it, it also felt surreal and even wrong, with some people asking why the site was not being treated as any other crime scene. One man described Tuam as 'ground zero' and begged: 'Dig those bodies up, every one of them, all over the country. Give the children some dignity.' Even if one family was able to get an answer, it was worth it. A woman from the housing estate pointed out that she had 'no right to tell a survivor you cannot identify where your brother or sister is' and hoped the children would not be left 'in a cesspit with just a plaque'. It was survivors, families and all those who wanted the truth for them who fought relentlessly against an ongoing silence from church and state. It was activists such as Izzy Kamikaze, who found an old map showing cesspools in the grounds that were known locally to have included a burial site. Bones had been found sporadically down the years. As the former Irish president Mary McAleese said about systemic abuse: 'We heard it through the media, we heard it through the courage of victims, we heard it through lawyers, we heard it through government. We never really heard it openly, spontaneously from our church.' I would say we never heard it first from those in power either, even when, in the case of the Tuam children, they had access to the information long before, from earlier investigations. At a council meeting in the 1960s, an influential politician argued against the impending closure of Tuam, saying, 'The county has the benefit of the money spent there.' I reported how a Tuam survivor fostered by the same politician spoke of abuse and exploitation for labour. She died before seeing any justice. 'Our Lord was crucified and so were the women of this country,' PJ Haverty, a Tuam survivor who first took me to the burial site, told me. 'The nuns had power, it was all about money and it was all about power.' His mother had gone to the nuns day after day trying to get her baby back. Tuam was just one in a system of institutions that operated until as recently as 2006, where unmarried pregnant women were sent to give birth, were effectively incarcerated and, in many cases, were forcibly separated from their children: more than 50,000 mothers and more than 50,000 children. A commission of investigation, forced by the news of Tuam, began in 2015 and concluded in 2021, finding that 9,000 children had died in these 'homes'. But it called the institutions 'refuges' and dismissed survivor testimonies about the inhumanity and abuses. The official redress scheme now excludes thousands of survivors, seemingly to cut costs. In 2018, during the government press conference announcing the decision to excavate, I was told by the then children's minister Katherine Zappone that Tuam could set a precedent for other institutions. There are many families still searching for answers. There are also mass graves on the grounds of similar institutions in the UK, the US and Canada. The crimes of the Catholic church are global. At the memorial last year, Tuam survivor Peter Mulryan told me he didn't want to sign the legal waiver required for redress, under which recipients agree not to take any further action against the state about their experience, so preventing any legal justice, describing it as 'another insult to survivors'. But, at 81, he felt he had no choice and is happy others are taking the case to court. Mulryan was one of many Tuam children 'boarded out' to a farm, and he told me he was brutally exploited there, with no justice or redress. His mother was sent to the Galway Magdalene laundry for the rest of her life. Corless found a sister he never knew about, who had died at Tuam. He has spoken out for most of a decade, hoping to find her. Religious sisters did speak to me for my book, but were often silenced by superiors or after legal advice. Meanwhile, voices from within the religious right, including the president of the Catholic League in the US, have called Tuam 'a hoax', in a country where reproductive rights are rolled back and Catholic hospitals have increasing influence. The Bon Secours order is part of an international healthcare conglomerate worth billions in the US. Terry Prone, whose PR firm acted for the Bon Secours Sisters, wrote a now infamous email when the news first broke, calling it the 'O my God – mass grave in West of Ireland' story and warning a French TV journalist: 'You'll find no mass grave, no evidence that children were ever so buried.' At a reading of my book, a man repeated the hoax claim, even after public photos from the test excavation showed the slits in a huge tank, making any proper burial impossible, the blurred photos of infant bones inside, and a baby's blue shoe. Despite this, religious and political conservatives in Ireland, rallying against recent progressive changes, have even argued for bringing back such institutions. From the earliest years, the state knew that 'illegitimate' children in these institutions were dying at sometimes five times the rate of children born within marriage. Death certificates show children dying of malnutrition, or marked as 'imbecile', one boy convulsing for 12 hours before dying. The children's lives were not valued. I think of Julia Devaney, a domestic worker in Tuam, who described it in taped interviews as barracks-like, smelling of the wet beds of frightened and deprived children, while nuns treated officials from local authorities to lavish dinners on the grounds. Devaney said a nun who worked there left the Bon Secours because of what she saw. 'They knew well that the home was a queer place, 'twas a rotten place,' said Devaney. 'I feel a sense of shame that I did not create a war.' Survivors are still fighting their long battle for truth and justice, hoping similar injustices will never be repeated. I believe that even today church and state perpetuate the silences and inequalities that led to a mass grave of children. This excavation can be a reckoning, a reminder to those in power to listen to those who are owed real accountability: the survivors and the families of the many children who can no longer speak. Caelainn Hogan is an Irish journalist and the author of Republic of Shame
The Guardian
5 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Why has it taken a decade to exhume the bodies of the 800 dead babies of Tuam?
A young girl played on a swing near a mass grave as the names of hundreds of children who died in a mother-and-baby institution in Ireland were read out during a memorial service late last year. The bright day turned to dark in the time it took. Now, the playground near the site in Tuam has been dismantled and the long-awaited exhumation has begun. But why has it taken more than a decade since it emerged that those dead children were likely buried in sewage chambers on the grounds of a publicly funded institution run by nuns and the local council? A technical drawing from the 1970s of the council housing estate built on the grounds showed 'old children's burial ground' written directly above 'proposed playground'. Local authorities knew long ago. News first broke in 2014 after Catherine Corless, who was working on a history project, tracked down death certificates for nearly 800 children for whom there were almost no burial records. She had gone to the Bon Secours Sisters, the Catholic organisation that ran the home, to the local bishop and the authorities. Little was done until she went to the media. It is a vindication of Corless's work that the exhumation is taking place, but also disturbing that it was never a certainty. I had already started writing a book about survivors of Ireland's institutions for 'unmarried mothers' when a test excavation publicly confirmed 'significant human remains' at Tuam, dating to the time the nuns ran the home, between 1925 and 1961. In 2018, the public was asked what should be done. I keep thinking of the 'talking stone', a lump of grey felt handed around a public meeting organised by Galway county council, which owned the site, in a Tuam hotel. We were asked to hold it and say what we wanted to happen about a mass grave of babies. Options ranged from memorialisation alone to the full forensic excavation happening today. While it was important to talk about it, it also felt surreal and even wrong, with some people asking why the site was not being treated as any other crime scene. One man described Tuam as 'ground zero' and begged: 'Dig those bodies up, every one of them, all over the country. Give the children some dignity.' Even if one family was able to get an answer, it was worth it. A woman from the housing estate pointed out that she had 'no right to tell a survivor you cannot identify where your brother or sister is' and hoped the children would not be left 'in a cesspit with just a plaque'. It was survivors, families and all those who wanted the truth for them who fought relentlessly against an ongoing silence from church and state. It was activists such as Izzy Kamikaze, who found an old map showing cesspools in the grounds that were known locally to have included a burial site. Bones had been found sporadically down the years. As the former Irish president Mary McAleese said about systemic abuse: 'We heard it through the media, we heard it through the courage of victims, we heard it through lawyers, we heard it through government. We never really heard it openly, spontaneously from our church.' I would say we never heard it first from those in power either, even when, in the case of the Tuam children, they had access to the information long before, from earlier investigations. At a council meeting in the 1960s, an influential politician argued against the impending closure of Tuam, saying, 'The county has the benefit of the money spent there.' I reported how a Tuam survivor fostered by the same politician spoke of abuse and exploitation for labour. She died before seeing any justice. 'Our Lord was crucified and so were the women of this country,' PJ Haverty, a Tuam survivor who first took me to the burial site, told me. 'The nuns had power, it was all about money and it was all about power.' His mother had gone to the nuns day after day trying to get her baby back. Tuam was just one in a system of institutions that operated until as recently as 2006, where unmarried pregnant women were sent to give birth, were effectively incarcerated and, in many cases, were forcibly separated from their children: more than 50,000 mothers and more than 50,000 children. A commission of investigation, forced by the news of Tuam, began in 2015 and concluded in 2021, finding that 9,000 children had died in these 'homes'. But it called the institutions 'refuges' and dismissed survivor testimonies about the inhumanity and abuses. The official redress scheme now excludes thousands of survivors, seemingly to cut costs. In 2018, during the government press conference announcing the decision to excavate, I was told by the then children's minister Katherine Zappone that Tuam could set a precedent for other institutions. There are many families still searching for answers. There are also mass graves on the grounds of similar institutions in the UK, the US and Canada. The crimes of the Catholic church are global. At the memorial last year, Tuam survivor Peter Mulryan told me he didn't want to sign the legal waiver required for redress, under which recipients agree not to take any further action against the state about their experience, so preventing any legal justice, describing it as 'another insult to survivors'. But, at 81, he felt he had no choice and is happy others are taking the case to court. Mulryan was one of many Tuam children 'boarded out' to a farm, and he told me he was brutally exploited there, with no justice or redress. His mother was sent to the Galway Magdalene laundry for the rest of her life. Corless found a sister he never knew about, who had died at Tuam. He has spoken out for most of a decade, hoping to find her. Religious sisters did speak to me for my book, but were often silenced by superiors or after legal advice. Meanwhile, voices from within the religious right, including the president of the Catholic League in the US, have called Tuam 'a hoax', in a country where reproductive rights are rolled back and Catholic hospitals have increasing influence. The Bon Secours order is part of an international healthcare conglomerate worth billions in the US. Terry Prone, whose PR firm acted for the Bon Secours Sisters, wrote a now infamous email when the news first broke, calling it the 'O my God – mass grave in West of Ireland' story and warning a French TV journalist: 'You'll find no mass grave, no evidence that children were ever so buried.' At a reading of my book, a man repeated the hoax claim, even after public photos from the test excavation showed the slits in a huge tank, making any proper burial impossible, the blurred photos of infant bones inside, and a baby's blue shoe. Despite this, religious and political conservatives in Ireland, rallying against recent progressive changes, have even argued for bringing back such institutions. From the earliest years, the state knew that 'illegitimate' children in these institutions were dying at sometimes five times the rate of children born within marriage. Death certificates show children dying of malnutrition, or marked as 'imbecile', one boy convulsing for 12 hours before dying. The children's lives were not valued. I think of Julia Devaney, a domestic worker in Tuam, who described it in taped interviews as barracks-like, smelling of the wet beds of frightened and deprived children, while nuns treated officials from local authorities to lavish dinners on the grounds. Devaney said a nun who worked there left the Bon Secours because of what she saw. 'They knew well that the home was a queer place, 'twas a rotten place,' said Devaney. 'I feel a sense of shame that I did not create a war.' Survivors are still fighting their long battle for truth and justice, hoping similar injustices will never be repeated. I believe that even today church and state perpetuate the silences and inequalities that led to a mass grave of children. This excavation can be a reckoning, a reminder to those in power to listen to those who are owed real accountability: the survivors and the families of the many children who can no longer speak. Caelainn Hogan is an Irish journalist and the author of Republic of Shame
Al Jazeera
6 days ago
- General
- Al Jazeera
How were babies' mass graves discovered in church-run home in Ireland?
Digging has begun to uncover the remains of some 800 infants and young children buried in mass graves in Tuam, western Ireland. These children have been unidentified for at least 65 years, and it was only a decade ago that a local historian discovered the existence of the mass graves. Here is what we know about who they may be, how they were found, and how they died. What's happening now? The excavation, which began on Monday, is expected to last two years. It will be on the site of St Mary's, a 'mother and baby home' run by the nuns of the Catholic order of Bon Secours Sisters, which no longer exists. The excavation will be by Ireland's Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (ODAIT), in collaboration with experts from the United Kingom, Canada, Colombia, Spain and the United States. Daniel MacSweeney, ODAIT director in Tuam, who is leading the excavation, told a recent news conference that the remains will be exhumed, analysed, identified where possible, and reburied. He added that the exhumation is 'incredibly complex' because some remains are mingled, archival records are lacking and it will be difficult to separate male from female remains if DNA cannot be recovered. What is a 'mother and baby home'? 'Mother and baby homes' were established across Ireland in the 20th century to house unmarried pregnant women who had no other source of support – family or otherwise – in a deeply conservative society. The vast majority of the 'homes' were operated by religious institutions, chiefly the Catholic Church. Shunned by society, the women sought help there, often suffering deep neglect and mistreatment, having their babies taken away for 'adoptions' they could not trace. St Mary's housed thousands of single mothers and their children between 1925 and 1961. It also housed hundreds of families of different configurations as well as unaccompanied children. How were the graves found? Local historian Catherine Corless discovered them nearly a decade ago. Corless grew up in Tuam and held vague memories of 'gaunt, desolate children being herded into the classroom at school, always a little later than the rest of us', she wrote in The Observer late last month. 'We were instructed by the nuns not to mix with those children, told that they carried disease. They did not continue into the higher classes and were soon forgotten,' Corless wrote. In 2012, Corless remembered the children when asked to contribute to a publication by the local historical society. She learned about the home after speaking to elderly residents of the city and began piecing information together, poring through maps and records. She found that there were no burial records for the many babies and children who died before the home closed down in 1961. While they had all been baptised, the Church denied knowledge of their death or burials. She also found that in 1970, two boys had found bones in an exposed part of the sewage tank and concluded there was enough evidence that the deceased babies and children were buried in a mass grave. Corless found records showing that as many as 796 babies and children died while they were at the home. Corless wrote that the Bon Secours sisters hired a PR company to deny the existence of a mass grave, claiming the bones were from the famine. However, Irish media eventually picked up her findings, prompting the Irish government to launch an investigation in 2015 into about 18 of the large mother and baby homes in Ireland. In 2016, a preliminary excavation revealed 'significant quantities of human remains' at Tuam. How did these babies die? State-issued death certificates list a range of causes of death, including tuberculosis, convulsions, anaemia, meningitis, measles, whooping cough and sometimes no reason. The first child to die was Patrick Derrane, who was five months old when he died from gastroenteritis in 1925. The last child to die was Mary Carty, also five months old when she died in 1960. The reason for her death is not specified. St Mary's was in a large 'workhouse' that was built in the mid-1800s, and it lacked central heating, heated water, and adequate sanitary facilities for nearly its entire existence. In the report by a commission established to investigate 'mother and baby homes' in Ireland, former inmates had mixed experiences, with some saying their time at St Mary's was fine, while others recounted a lack of food, rest, warmth, and even mothers denied access to their children. What has the church said? In 2014, then-Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary said: 'I am horrified and saddened to hear of the large number of deceased children involved and this points to a time of great suffering and pain for the little ones and their mothers. 'As the diocese did not have any involvement in the running of the home in Tuam, we do not have any material relating to it in our archives,' Neary said. He added that the records held by the Bon Secours Sisters were handed to Galway County Council and health authorities in 1961. In January of that year, the Bon Secours Sisters issued an apology signed by Sister Eileen O'Connor, which included: 'We did not live up to our Christianity when running the Home. 'We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the Home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way. For all that, we are deeply sorry.' Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin acknowledged that the Catholic Church was part of a culture that stigmatised people. 'For that, and for the long-lasting hurt and emotional distress that has resulted, I unreservedly apologise to the survivors and to all those who are personally impacted,' he said in 2021. In 2021, the Irish government released a 3,000-page report based on the findings from their investigation which was launched in 2015. After this, all institutions formally apologised and pledged to excavate the site at Tuam. In January of that year, the Bon Secours Sisters issued an apology statement. 'We did not live up to our Christianity when running the Home,' the statement wrote. The statement, signed off by Sister Eileen O'Connor acknowledged that the sisters did not uphold the inherent dignity of the women and children who came to the Home. Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin also apologised, acknowledging that the Catholic Church was part of a culture where people were stigmatised or judged. 'For that, and for the long-lasting hurt and emotional distress that has resulted, I unreservedly apologise to the survivors and to all those who are personally impacted by the realities it uncovers,' Marin said in a statement in 2021. What has the Irish government said? Also in January of 2021, Irish Prime Minister (or Taoiseach) Micheal Martin apologised in parliament on behalf of the state. In 2021, the Irish government released the 3,000-page commission report after six years of investigation, resulting in formal apologies and pledges to excavate the site at Tuam. In 2022, a law was passed allowing the remains to be exhumed and tested. What have family members of inmates said? 'These children were denied every human right in their lifetime as were their mothers,' Anna Corrigan, whose two siblings may have been buried at Tuam, told reporters this month. 'And they were denied dignity and respect in death.' Many children born in the homes survived but were taken to orphanages in other places or put up for adoption by the nuns. The mothers and families of these children did not know, and in many cases could not find out, what happened to their babies. Has this only happened in Ireland? Children in state or religious care in other parts of the world have also been abused in the past. In New Zealand, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found in 2024 that approximately one in three individuals in state or religious care between 1950 and 2019 experienced abuse. During this period, about 200,000 children, young people and vulnerable adults were subjected to physical and sexual abuse, which particularly targeted Indigenous Maori and Pacific Islanders. In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada found that the residential school system had amounted to cultural genocide. The system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children who were forcefully taken from their families for 'reprogramming'. They ran from 1879 to 1997 under the Catholic, Anglican and United Churches.
Sunday World
14-07-2025
- General
- Sunday World
Major excavation of unmarked grave of babies and young children under way
The 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 1961. Archaeologists 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 period. 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, Taoiseach Micheal Martin apologised 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. The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention Tuam (ODAIT), which is undertaking the work, confirmed that ground was broken at 10.38am on Monday. The process, which started on Monday, is expected to last two years. The work at the burial site will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible and re-interment of the remains at the site. 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 excavation. Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the ODAIT, said: 'These measures are necessary to ensure the site's forensic integrity and to enable us to carry out the works to the highest international standards that govern the excavation and recovery programme.' A visit for families and survivors to view the site ahead of the commencement of the full excavation took place last Tuesday. Dr Niamh McCullagh, ODAIT's senior forensic consultant, is leading the forensic excavation alongside other Irish specialists and international experts from Colombia, Spain, UK, Canada, Australia and the US. ODAIT's multidisciplinary forensic approach to the complex challenge of the excavation is grounded in the expertise of forensic archaeologists, osteoarchaeologists, forensic anthropologists together with experts in crime scene management including evidence management and forensic photography. Anna 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 day. Ms 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.'
Irish Independent
14-07-2025
- General
- Irish Independent
Major excavation of unmarked grave of babies and young children under way at Tuam site
The excavation of the site in the Galway town will try to identify the remains of infants who died at the home between 1925 and 1961. Archaeologists 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 Galway institution across that time period. St Mary's home for unmarried mothers and their children in Tuam was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic nuns. In 2021, Taoiseach Micheál Martin apologised 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. The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention Tuam (ODAIT), which is undertaking the work, confirmed that ground was broken at 10.38am on Monday. The process is expected to last two years. The work at the burial site will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible and re-interment of the remains at the site. 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 excavation. Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the ODAIT, said: 'These measures are necessary to ensure the site's forensic integrity and to enable us to carry out the works to the highest international standards that govern the excavation and recovery programme.' ADVERTISEMENT A visit for families and survivors to view the site ahead of the commencement of the full excavation took place last Tuesday. Dr Niamh McCullagh, ODAIT's senior forensic consultant, is leading the forensic excavation alongside other Irish specialists and international experts from Colombia, Spain, UK, Canada, Australia and the US. ODAIT's multidisciplinary forensic approach to the complex challenge of the excavation is grounded in the expertise of forensic archaeologists, osteoarchaeologists, forensic anthropologists together with experts in crime scene management including evidence management and forensic photography. Anna 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 day. Ms 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, 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 gardaí, 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 gardaí 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.'
