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South China Morning Post
a day ago
- South China Morning Post
Mass grave scandal, cover-up claims rock southern Indian state
The government in India 's southern state of Karnataka has started a special investigation into allegations of a mass burial at Dharmasthala, a major pilgrimage centre, following a confession by a former sanitation worker that has sent shock waves across the country. In a formal complaint to police dated July 3 – a copy of which has been seen by This Week in Asia – the worker revealed that between 1998 and 2014, he was allegedly instructed to bury 'hundreds of bodies' of women and children. Some of the victims, he claimed, had been raped. 'Many of the female bodies were without clothing or underwear. Some bore clear signs of sexual assault and violence: wounds or strangulation that indicated violence,' the complaint stated. The 48-year-old sanitation worker, who belongs to the marginalised Dalit community, said he was coerced by some 'influential people' into performing the burials to protect himself and his family. On July 19, the Karnataka government formed a special investigation team (SIT) amid demands from several sections of society. The latest allegation has brought the spotlight back on previous cases, mostly involving young girls and linked to Dharmasthala, one of which was the missing daughter of former stenographer Sujatha Bhat.
Times
13-07-2025
- General
- Times
Excavation may reveal how 796 babies died in Irish mother and baby home
She is considered a national hero, but Catherine Corless was amused that her refusal to meet Pope Francis when he visited Ireland in 2018 attracted so much media attention. 'It was never about me,' said the 71-year-old arable farmer-turned-local historian. 'It was about the babies. They didn't matter in life. They didn't matter in death — but they were all that mattered to me.' On Monday, digging will finally begin at the Tuam mother and baby home where Corless uncovered the deaths and mass burial of 796 babies. An investigation prompted by her work found that 9,000 children died in similar homes across Ireland in the 20th century. 'I could never understand how anyone could turn a blind eye,' said Corless, for whom Monday marks some sort of personal closure. 'This is all I have ever asked for, right from the beginning. These are baptised babies. We have to get them out.' Corless said she began 'naively dabbling' in local and family history after she discovered that her own mother, Kathleen, was born out of wedlock and subsequently fostered. While doing a part-time history course in the nearby village of Kilkerrin, Co Galway, in 2011, she became interested in the local Tuam mother and baby home, which had closed down in 1961 and was demolished in 1972. Run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a Catholic order of nuns, between 1925 and its closure, the home housed pregnant women and babies born to unmarried mothers — who found themselves subjected to huge stigma in Ireland at the time. It was only closed down due to the dilapidation of the building, rather than the current scandal. In 1975, two boys, Frannie Hopkins, 12, and Barry Sweeney, 10, were playing on the Tuam site when they discovered, under a concrete slab, an underground septic tank containing the bones of children. Local people assumed they were remains from the workhouse that had been on the same site before 1925, or the bones of victims of the Great Famine of the 1840s. In 2012, Corless published a piece in the Journal of the Old Tuam Society establishing that she had found 796 records of children that had died with no corresponding burial record. 'By then,' she said, 'I had heard the story of the two little boys who found bones in the sewage tank. I was putting two and two together.' She concluded the bones that the boys had found in the septic tank could only belong to the 796 babies from the home. Not long afterwards, the press uncovered her findings and the stories of survivors began to come forward. The story exploded around the world. 'I was in prison for seven years,' recounted PJ Haverty, 73, matter of factly. Born in Tuam, he lived in the home until he was seven, when he was fostered by Teresa and Mikey Hansbury, local farmers from Menlough, near Tuam. He does not remember much about Tuam: 'There was a high wall all around, so we couldn't see anything. We were allowed out just to go to school, ten minutes late in the morning and ten minutes early in the evening because we weren't allowed to mix with the other kids. Then we were marched back in again to the prison.' His mother, Eileen, became pregnant with him in 1951, age 26. She went to the local priest for help but the reaction from the Catholic Church was one of stigma, not mercy. Her experience was far from unique. The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland found in 2021 that there were approximately 56,000 unmarried mothers and 57,000 children in the homes across Ireland between 1922 to 1998, when the last of the institutions closed. Almost 15 per cent of all children in the institutions were found to have died — around 9,000. Micheál Martin, the Irish taoiseach, apologised, saying: 'The most striking thing is the shame felt by women who became pregnant outside of marriage and the stigma that was so cruelly attached to their children. 'I apologise for the profound generational wrong visited upon Irish mothers and their children who ended up in a mother and baby home or a county home. As the commission says plainly, 'They should not have been there.'' Haverty explained how shame came knocking for his mother: 'The priest said she was to be kept indoors till the baby was due to be born, and she wasn't to enter the house of God, that's the church, because she was a sinner.' Eileen was taken to the Tuam baby home to give birth and lived there for 12 months, after which she was told to leave by the nuns. She was not allowed to take her baby son with her, though she desperately wanted to, but was expected to pay five shillings a week for his upkeep. In 1953, she had to write a letter to the home to beg for respite from the payments when a period of sickness prevented her from working. Eileen tried often to visit Haverty, he later discovered, but she was refused entry and eventually moved to Brixton, south London. As a young man, shame followed Haverty too: 'You were called a bastard and a dog from the street and a disease carrier. All that was thrown at me. It was awful, very hurtful.' In 1977, with the help of his foster mother, Haverty found and travelled to meet Eileen, and they met twice more before she died in 2011. Haverty, now married to an English woman, who is also called Eileen, with three sons of his own, John, Kevin and Connor, had not spoken of his experience publicly until he met Corless in 2021. 'Catherine said to me: 'Stand up, you did nothing wrong.' It was a weight off my shoulders.' He was adamant: 'I want everybody to come forward, walk around with their heads up. We did nothing wrong to anyone.' On average, Corless's research showed, a baby died at Tuam every two weeks. They were buried, without coffins, one on top of the other in the 9ft-deep chambers of the underground septic tank. 'My God, it dragged on and on and on,' Corless explained of the path to get to a proper excavation of the site on Monday. 'It was horrific the way it carried on but the more it did, the more determined I got. In my mind I thought they're not getting away with this, the government had to buckle eventually.' In 2017, an initial analysis of some bones carbon-dated them to the same period as the mother and baby home. In 2018, the Irish government announced the site would be excavated but did not draft the bill enabling a dig until 2019. The coronavirus pandemic further delayed matters. The Institutional Burials Act was finally passed in 2022 and a year later, the independent Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention was created to oversee the excavation. Daniel MacSweeney, 51, a former aid worker and Red Cross solicitor, has led the work with a team of forensic scientists and archaeologists from around the world, in order to prepare the site for Monday's breaking of the ground. The excavation is expected to take two years to complete. 'Survivors have been waiting a long time for answers and this marks the shift from looking and prepping to finally doing,' MacSweeney said. But he cautioned that there is no way of predicting what they will find over the course of the dig: 'For many survivors and family members it's a time of heightened emotion — they are pleased we are moving ahead but it brings into view lots of questions that may or may not be answered.' Anna Corrigan, 68, was not aware of the Tuam mother and baby home until she was in her fifties and became more interested in her family's history. With the help of Barnardo's children's charity, she discovered around Christmas time 2012 that she had two half-brothers, who had both been born in the mother and baby home. 'I had some vague recollection of an argument my mother had with a family member about her having sons but I thought it was a dream,' she said. 'But once I get a bone between my teeth, I'm like a dog.' Through her own research she uncovered that her mother, Bridget Dolan, who died in 2001, had two sons: John Desmond Dolan, born February 22, 1946, and William Joseph Dolan, born May 21, 1950. Beyond their birth certificates, the documentation Corrigan found is sparse, leaving her with more questions than answers. At his birth, John was recorded as weighing 8lb 9oz and healthy. When he died at just 14 months old, the cause of death was given as measles. His notes also said he was a 'congenital idiot' and 'emaciated'. She believes it is evidence her brothers were mistreated in Tuam. William lacks even a death certificate — merely a note in the nun's files from the time which reads: 'Dead 3rd February 1951'. John is listed as one of the 796 babies uncovered by Corless's research. Corrigan is still unsure whether William's death has been inaccurately recorded, or if he was in fact adopted and might still be alive. Like many families and survivors she awaits Monday's excavation with bated breath: 'I just want truth or answers or closure, if they are in that pit at least I can tool on my mother's headstones, 'pre-deceased by her two sons John and William', it's truth, closure, finality, answers.' Does she expect that closure? 'No, the nuns lie through their teeth, they hand you an apology, I could wallpaper my kitchen with apologies that won't bring answers.' The Bon Secours Sisters have been contacted for comment.
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Excavation to begin at Irish house of horrors mother and baby burial site where 800 child corpses were hidden - as officials warn it will take TWO YEARS to complete the task
International experts will join Irish counterparts to uncover an unmarked mass burial site for children at a former mother and baby home in Tuam in western Ireland, the director of the excavation team said on Monday. Staff from Colombia, Spain, Britain, Canada and the United States have joined the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (ODAIT) team in Tuam, its director Daniel MacSweeney said at a press conference in the town. The full-scale excavation of the site in Tuam - 135 miles west of Dublin - will start next week and is expected to last two years, said MacSweeney. The work at the burial site, which is being undertaken by the ODAIT, will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible, and re-interment of the remains of infants who died at the home between 1925 and 1961. Niamh McCullagh, ODAIT's Senior Forensic Consultant, said that the random nature in which remains were buried added to the difficulty. Significant quantities of baby remains were discovered in 20 individual chambers within an apparently makeshift crypt two metres below ground at the site during test excavations between 2016 and 2017, she said. MacSweeney told AFP that the complexity of the task 'is unique as we are dealing with so many sets of infant remains'. DNA samples have already been collected from around 30 relatives, and this process will be expanded in the coming months to gather as much genetic evidence as possible, said MacSweeney. A figurine in the infants graveyard at Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Tipperary, which was mother and baby home operated by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary from 1930 to 1970 A 2.4-metre-high hoarding has been installed around the perimeter, which is in the middle of a housing estate built during the 1970s. The site is subject to security monitoring on a 24-hour basis to ensure the forensic integrity of the site during the excavation. The excavation comes over a decade since a historian discovered the unmarked mass burial site. In 2014, local historian Catherine Corless produced evidence that 796 children, from newborns to a nine-year-old, had died at the location. Her research pointed to the children's likely final resting place - a disused septic tank discovered in 1975. The mother and baby home in Tuam was run by Catholic nuns between 1925 and 1961, and the site was left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972. It was Corless's discovery of the unmarked mass burial site that led to an Irish Commission of Investigation into the mother and baby home. Women who became pregnant out of wedlock were siloed in so-called mother and baby homes by Irish society, the state and the Catholic church, which has historically held an iron grip on Irish social attitudes. After giving birth at the homes, mothers were then separated from their newborn children, who were often given up for adoption. The state-backed enquiries sparked by the discoveries in Tuam found that 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such homes over the space of 76 years. The commission's report concluded that 9,000 children had died in the homes across Ireland. Often, church and state worked in tandem to run the institutions, which still operated in Ireland as recently as 1998. The ODAIT team was finally appointed in 2023 to lead the Tuam site excavation. 'These children were denied every human right in their lifetime, as were their mothers, and they were denied dignity and respect in death,' Anna Corrigan whose two siblings may have been buried at the site, told reporters. 'We are hoping that today maybe will be the start of hearing them as I think they have been crying for a long time to be heard,' she said.
CTV News
07-07-2025
- General
- CTV News
International team set to excavate Irish mother and baby mass burial site
Excavation Workers begin setting up at Tuam, Ireland, Monday July 7, 2025 ahead of the excavation at St Mary's home for unmarried mothers and their children which which was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, the Catholic nuns based in Tuam. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison) TUAM, Ireland — International experts will join Irish counterparts to uncover an unmarked mass burial site for children at a former mother and baby home in Tuam in western Ireland, the director of the excavation team said on Monday. Staff from Colombia, Spain, Britain, Canada and the United States have joined the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (ODAIT) team in Tuam, its director Daniel MacSweeney said at a press conference in the town. The full-scale excavation of the site in Tuam -- 135 miles (220 kilometres) west of Dublin -- will start next week and is expected to last two years, said MacSweeney. The work at the burial site, which is being undertaken by the ODAIT, will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible, and re-interment of the remains of infants who died at the home between 1925 and 1961. Niamh McCullagh, ODAIT's Senior Forensic Consultant, said that the random nature in which remains were buried added to the difficulty. Significant quantities of baby remains were discovered in 20 individual chambers within an apparently makeshift crypt two metres below ground at the site during test excavations between 2016 and 2017, she said. MacSweeney told AFP that the complexity of the task 'is unique as we are dealing with so many sets of infant remains'. DNA samples have already been collected from around 30 relatives, and this process will be expanded in the coming months to gather as much genetic evidence as possible, said MacSweeney. A 2.4-metre-high hoarding has been installed around the perimeter, which is in the middle of a housing estate built during the 1970s. The site is subject to security monitoring on a 24-hour basis to ensure the forensic integrity of the site during the excavation. Over a decade-long wait The excavation comes over a decade since a historian discovered the unmarked mass burial site. In 2014, local historian Catherine Corless produced evidence that 796 children, from newborns to a nine-year-old, had died at the location. Her research pointed to the children's likely final resting place -- a disused septic tank discovered in 1975. The mother and baby home in Tuam was run by Catholic nuns between 1925 and 1961, and the site was left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972. It was Corless's discovery of the unmarked mass burial site that led to an Irish Commission of Investigation into the mother and baby home. Women who became pregnant out of wedlock were siloed in so-called mother and baby homes by Irish society, the state and the Catholic church, which has historically held an iron grip on Irish social attitudes. After giving birth at the homes, mothers were then separated from their newborn children, who were often given up for adoption. The state-backed enquiries sparked by the discoveries in Tuam found that 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such homes over the space of 76 years. The commission's report concluded that 9,000 children had died in the homes across Ireland. Often, church and state worked in tandem to run the institutions, which still operated in Ireland as recently as 1998. The ODAIT team was finally appointed in 2023 to lead the Tuam site excavation. 'These children were denied every human right in their lifetime, as were their mothers, and they were denied dignity and respect in death,' Anna Corrigan whose two siblings may have been buried at the site, told reporters. 'We are hoping that today maybe will be the start of hearing them as I think they have been crying for a long time to be heard,' she said.
News24
07-07-2025
- News24
International team begins excavation of mass burial site for children at former Irish mother and baby home
International experts will join Irish counterparts to uncover an unmarked mass burial site for children at a former mother and baby home in Tuam in western Ireland, the director of the excavation team said on Monday. Staff from Colombia, Spain, Britain, Canada and the United States have joined the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (ODAIT) team in Tuam, its director Daniel MacSweeney said at a press conference in the town. The full-scale excavation of the site in Tuam - 220 kilometres west of Dublin - will start next week and is expected to last two years, said MacSweeney. The work at the burial site, which is being undertaken by the ODAIT, will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible, and re-interment of the remains of infants who died at the home between 1925 and 1961. Niamh McCullagh, ODAIT's senior forensic consultant, said that the random nature in which remains were buried added to the difficulty. READ | Mom accused of killing, burying child, 2, appeared to love her 'son', colleagues say Significant quantities of baby remains were discovered in 20 individual chambers within an apparently makeshift crypt two metres below ground at the site during test excavations between 2016 and 2017, she said. MacSweeney told AFP that the complexity of the task "is unique as we are dealing with so many sets of infant remains". DNA samples have already been collected from around 30 relatives, and this process will be expanded in the coming months to gather as much genetic evidence as possible, said MacSweeney. A 2.4-metre-high hoarding has been installed around the perimeter, which is in the middle of a housing estate built during the 1970s. The site is subject to security monitoring on a 24-hour basis to ensure the forensic integrity of the site during the excavation. Over a decade-long wait The excavation comes over a decade since a historian discovered the unmarked mass burial site. In 2014, local historian Catherine Corless produced evidence that 796 children, from newborns to a nine-year-old, had died at the location. Her research pointed to the children's likely final resting place - a disused septic tank discovered in 1975. The mother and baby home in Tuam was run by Catholic nuns between 1925 and 1961, and the site was left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972. It was Corless's discovery of the unmarked mass burial site that led to an Irish Commission of Investigation into the mother and baby home. Women who became pregnant out of wedlock were siloed in so-called mother and baby homes by Irish society, the state and the Catholic church, which has historically held an iron grip on Irish social attitudes. After giving birth at the homes, mothers were then separated from their newborn children, who were often given up for adoption. The state-backed enquiries sparked by the discoveries in Tuam found that 56 000 unmarried women and 57 000 children passed through 18 such homes over the space of 76 years. The commission's report concluded that 9 000 children had died in the homes across Ireland. Often, church and state worked in tandem to run the institutions, which still operated in Ireland as recently as 1998. The ODAIT team was finally appointed in 2023 to lead the Tuam site excavation. "These children were denied every human right in their lifetime, as were their mothers, and they were denied dignity and respect in death," Anna Corrigan whose two siblings may have been buried at the site, told reporters. "We are hoping that today maybe will be the start of hearing them as I think they have been crying for a long time to be heard," she said.
