Burial ground discovered at site of mother and baby home in Tuam
Evidence of a cemetery has been found at the site of a former institution for unmarried mothers and their children in Tuam, County Galway.
The mother and baby home came to international attention in 2014, when research led by local historian Catherine Corless found that 796 babies and young children had died there without burial records.
“The presence of bodies at this location has now been confirmed,” the Office of the Director of Authorized Response Tuam (ODAIT) wrote in its fourth update since the agency began working in the area in July.
He said he found “graves the size of children or babies” at the edge of the area, which was open from 1925 to 1961.
“The arrangement and size of the graves are consistent evidence that there was a cemetery in this part of the site dating from the period when the mother and baby institution was in operation,” he continued.
According to initial evaluations, in addition to the seven groups of remains discovered last month, all buried in coffins, it is thought that four groups of infant remains were also unearthed during the excavation. Further forensic analysis is ongoing.
According to ODAIT, historical documents indicated the possibility of a burial site, but there were no initial signs of its existence at ground or surface level.
In 2017, a government investigation found a “significant amount” of human remains in underground chambers just 100 meters from another part of the site.
ODAIT executive response director Daniel MacSweeney told RTÉ that ultimately 160 people offered to provide DNA samples to help identify the bodies.
“I know from experience that sometimes the discovery of remains can be a catalyst for people to come forward,” he said.
Irish leader Micheal Martin has issued an apology on behalf of the province for the treatment of women and children housed in mother and baby homes across Ireland in 2021.
His apology followed the final report of an investigation that concluded more than 9,000 children died in 18 mother and baby homes that housed mothers who became pregnant out of wedlock.
“They shouldn’t have been there,” he told the Irish parliament. “The state has failed you, the mothers and the children in these homes.”
The report stated that 15 percent of children in homes died from diseases and infections such as stomach flu, and this figure was almost twice the nationwide infant mortality rate.
