Forensics discover remains of another 22 infants at Irish mother and baby house of horrors site where hundreds of corpses are feared buried
Researchers at Ireland’s infamous mother and baby house of horrors have made a terrifying new discovery, unearthing the remains of 22 more babies at a site where up to 800 bodies were feared to lie.
The excavation team in Tuam, County Galway, which started its meticulous work in July last year, unearthed a total of 99 bodies.
The newly discovered remains were found inside coffins in an area at the southwestern end of the area that documents describe as a ‘burial ground’.
They are now being taken to a new morgue and laboratory in Toghermore, Tuam, where experts will clean, dry and examine the remains.
The agency conducting the excavation, known as the Directorate of Authorized Intervention (ODAIT), said the investigation would include radiology and 3D scanning.
It will aim to ‘reconstruct details of their lives and deaths’, such as their age and gender.
ODAIT said: ‘These details can narrow down the number of possible matching individuals and help link the skeletal individual to a name.’
Senior Forensic Medicine consultant Dr. Niamh McCullagh said: ITV News: ‘The fact that such a high number was found at such an early period, especially in the excavations carried out in this area, shows us that there is more in the region.
The newly discovered remains were found inside coffins in an area at the southwestern end of the area that documents describe as a ‘burial ground’.
Investigators at Ireland’s infamous mother and baby house of horrors have made a grim new discovery, uncovering the remains of 22 babies, or another baby, at the site where up to 800 bodies were feared to lie (forensic examiners working at the site)
Death records show that an average of two babies die a week, mostly due to malnutrition and treatable diseases
‘It is significant that we have found what appears to be a burial site and that the remains are so concentrated in this area, and we hope to find more.’
The 99 remains found so far have been buried in coffins, and 62 people have been given DNA samples to help identify them.
The house in Tuam first attracted international attention in 2014, when local historian Catherine Corless uncovered 796 death certificates of babies and young children who died there, but no burial records could be found.
The institution was part of a network of homes across Ireland in the 20th century where unmarried pregnant women were sent to give birth and then forcibly separated from their babies.
Death records show that an average of two babies die a week, mostly due to malnutrition and treatable diseases.
Operated by the Bon Secours Brothers on behalf of Galway County Council, it was open from 1925 until its closure in 1961.
