How nearly 800 Irish babies were discarded in a sewage tank

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For decades, 796 babies who died at a church-run home in Tuam, Ireland, lay in an unmarked grave — many possibly discarded in a former sewage tank. Now, a landmark forensic excavation aims to identify and bury them with dignity read more
A 'No access to public' sign is put up on a barricade near the excavation site of the Tuam graveyard, where the bodies of 796 babies were uncovered at the site of a former Catholic Church-run Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, in Tuam, Ireland, July 7, 2025. File Image/Reuters
A full-scale forensic excavation is now underway at a site in Tuam, County Galway in Ireland, where the remains of nearly 800 infants and young children are believed to be buried in an unmarked grave.
The dig, which formally commences on Monday, marks a turning point in Ireland's reckoning with the harrowing legacy of its church-run institutions for unmarried mothers and their children.
The operation, expected to last two years, is taking place on the grounds where the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home once stood — a site now overlaid by a housing estate and children's playground.
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A team of forensic archaeologists, anthropologists and crime scene investigators, including international experts from as far as Colombia, Canada, Australia and the US, is tasked with recovering and identifying human remains that date back to when the institution was in operation, between 1925 and 1961.
Uncovering Tuam's hidden & horrific history
The Tuam Mother and Baby Home — also referred to as St Mary's — was one of many such facilities established to house women who became pregnant outside of marriage, a condition then heavily stigmatised by both Irish society and the Catholic Church.
The Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic nuns, oversaw the institution, which also included the nearby Grove Hospital under their care.
A memorial is put up at the Tuam graveyard, where the bodies of 796 babies were uncovered at the site of a former Catholic Church-run Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, in Tuam, Ireland, July 7, 2025. File Image/Reuters
During its 36 years of operation, St Mary's housed thousands of women and children. Death records show that 796 infants and young children died at the institution, ranging in age from newborns to toddlers up to three years old.
The first child known to have died at the home was five-month-old Patrick Derrane in 1925, and the last was Mary Carty, also five months old, in 1960.
Despite the number of recorded deaths, only two of the children were officially interred in a nearby cemetery.
The absence of any formal burial documentation, headstones or memorials for the remaining children raised longstanding questions about where and how they were buried.
Historian Catherine Corless watches Taoiseach Micheal Martin speaking during a Government webinar meeting for survivors and supporters of Church-run mother and baby homes where he outlines the first look at the report by the Commission of Investigation into the institutions before it is formally published, in Tuam, Ireland, January 12, 2021. File Image/Reuters
The reality began to come into focus in 2014 when local historian Catherine Corless published her findings based on years of research.
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She had grown up in Tuam and remembered the 'home children' being segregated at school.
Her initial inquiries into the home's history led her to request death records from the Galway registrar's office. Expecting a short list, she was stunned when she was told there were hundreds of names.
'A fortnight later a sceptical member of staff called to ask if she really wanted them all,' she recalled. The eventual list included 796 names.
Seeking answers about their burials, Corless checked cemetery records in Galway and nearby County Mayo, only to find no trace of these children.
Her research also included old survey maps of the site. One map from 1929 identified a specific area as a 'sewage tank.' A later map from the 1970s bore a handwritten note calling the same area a 'burial ground.'
Senior Forensic Consultant Niamh McCullagh shows a map of the planned excavation of the Tuam graveyard, where the bodies of 796 babies were uncovered at the site of a former Catholic Church-run Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, near the excavation site in Tuam, Ireland, July 7, 2025. File Image/Reuters
Her suspicions intensified when she learned from a local cemetery caretaker that two boys playing in the area during the 1970s had lifted a broken concrete slab and found bones underneath.
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The site was quickly covered, and for decades, the matter remained undisturbed.
Although some believed the bones might have belonged to victims of the Irish Famine, Corless noted that famine-era dead had been buried with markers in a separate field nearby.
This discovery pointed instead to a potential mass grave on the home's former grounds.
Irish govt confirms graves in Tuam
In 2017, the Irish government commissioned a test excavation at the Tuam site. Forensic investigators unearthed a vault consisting of twenty chambers containing 'significant quantities of human remains.'
The remains, confirmed through carbon dating, were from the period when the home was in operation and ranged in age from approximately 35 weeks gestational age to three years old.
The investigation was carried out by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation under Judge Yvonne Murphy. The Commission expressed shock at the findings and continued its inquiry to determine who was responsible for the handling and disposal of the remains.
Anna Corrigan, whose two brothers were born at the former Catholic Church-run Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home and one of them died very young as the records suggest, shows pages from the book titled 'My Name is Bridget: The Untold Story of Bridget Dolan and the Tuam Mother and Baby Home' near the excavation site of the Tuam graveyard, where the bodies of 796 babies were uncovered at the site of the former Catholic Church-run mother and baby home, in Tuam, Ireland, July 7, 2025. File Image/Reuters
In 2021, following the release of the Commission's final report, the Irish government issued a formal state apology.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin stated: 'We had a completely warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy, and young mothers and their sons and daughters were forced to pay a terrible price for that dysfunction.'
The commission's work revealed that roughly 9,000 children had died across 18 mother and baby homes in Ireland.
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The Bon Secours Sisters, who operated the Tuam facility, also offered their apology. 'We did not live up to our Christianity when running the Home,' they acknowledged.
Excavation crew work at the site of the Tuam graveyard, where the bodies of 796 babies were uncovered at the site of a former Catholic Church-run Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, in Tuam, Ireland, July 7, 2025. File Image/Reuters
They further conceded that the children had been 'buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way' and offered compensation to affected families.
The excavation into the mass grave begins
Now, a decade after Corless's research brought global attention to Tuam, heavy machinery and prefabricated units occupy the site as excavation work begins in earnest.
The project is led by Daniel MacSweeney, an expert in recovering human remains from complex environments, including conflict zones such as Afghanistan.
'This is a very challenging process — really a world-first,' MacSweeney said. He noted that the remains of the children are likely to be intermixed and extremely fragile.
'They're absolutely tiny,' he explained. 'We need to recover the remains very, very carefully – to maximise the possibility of identification.'
He added that the task is complicated by the co-mingled state of the bones, the difficulty in distinguishing male from female remains in children so young, limited archival records, and the uncertain condition of the DNA.
The operation, funded by the Irish government at an estimated cost between €6 and €13 million, aims to carry out DNA testing to identify as many of the remains as possible.
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The ultimate goal is to provide dignified burials for the children who were denied one in life.
Denise Gormley and her daughter Rosa, 7, pay their respects and blow bubbles at the Tuam graveyard, where the bodies of 796 babies were uncovered at the site of a former Catholic home for unmarried mothers and their children, on the day a government-ordered inquiry into former Church-run homes for unmarried mothers is formally published, in Tuam, Ireland, January 12, 2021. File Image/Reuters
While the excavation at Tuam proceeds, some residents have called for further scrutiny of the Grove Hospital, another facility once run by the Bon Secours order.
Allegations have emerged that children and siblings may have been buried there from the 1950s through the 1970s.
The order denies that any graveyard existed on the premises, but Galway County Council has now mandated that an archaeologist monitor any ground disturbances at the hospital site to preserve possible human remains.
The Tuam dig represents more than a recovery of bones — it is a broader confrontation with one of Ireland's most disturbing institutional legacies. For decades, the home operated under a veil of secrecy.
The hope now is that each child will finally be named, honoured, and laid to rest with the dignity they were once denied.
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With inputs from agencies