Opening 'the pit': Dig for remains of 800 infants at former 'mother and baby home' in Ireland begins
A long-awaited forensic excavation at a former 'mother and baby home', where the remains of almost 800 babies and children are believed to be buried, will start today in County Galway.
Many of the children who died at the institution in Tuam are believed to have been dumped into a former sewage tank, known as "the pit", according to local historian Catherine Corless.
It was her painstaking research that uncovered the deaths of 798 children at the home for unmarried mothers between 1925 and its closure in 1961.
Of those, just two were buried in a nearby cemetery. The remaining 796 are, it's presumed, buried at the site.
"I'm feeling very relieved," the historian told Sky News as the excavation begins.
"It's been a long, long journey. Not knowing what's going to happen, if it's just going to fall apart or if it's really going to happen."
It exposed the dark underbelly of a mid-century Ireland heavily swayed by Catholicism and its cruel attitudes towards illegitimate children and the women who bore them, often sent to mother and baby homes before being separated from their offspring.
A decade later, a team of investigators led by Daniel MacSweeney is embarking on a forensic excavation that could last for two years.
The goal is to identify as many of the remains as possible through DNA testing, and to give all a dignified reburial.
It's a glimmer of hope for people like Annette McKay, who now lives in Manchester. Her mother Margaret "Maggie" O'Connor gave birth to a baby girl in the Tuam home in 1942 after being raped at 17.
The girl, named Mary Margaret, died six months later. Annette remembers her late mother recalling how "she was pegging washing out and a nun came up behind her and said 'the child of your sin is dead'."
Annette now hopes her infant sister's remains can be exhumed at Tuam and laid to rest with Maggie. Margaret O'Connor reunited with her child.
"I don't care if it's a thimbleful, as they tell me there wouldn't be much remains left; at six months old, it's mainly cartilage more than bone. I don't care if it's a thimbleful for me to be able to pop Mary Margaret with Maggie. That's fitting."
For Annette, now 71, Tuam is emblematic of a different time in Ireland.
"We locked up victims of rape, we locked up victims of incest, we locked up victims of violence, we put them in laundries, we took their children, and we just handed them over to the Church to do what they wanted," she said.
"My mother worked heavily pregnant, cleaning floors and a nun passing kicked my mother in the stomach. And when that place is opened, their dirty, ugly secret, it isn't a secret anymore.
"It's out there. And we need to know from that dirty, ugly place what happened there. So first and foremost, we want answers to that place."
The Irish government made a formal state apology in 2021 after an inquiry found an "appalling level of infant mortality" in Ireland's mother and baby homes, concluding that around 9,000 children had died in the 18 institutions investigated.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin said at the time that "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 Sisters of Bon Secours, which had run the Tuam home, offered their "profound apologies", admitting the children were "buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way", and offered financial compensation.
12:55
As the dig - which could last up to two years - starts at the Bon Secours site, the people of Tuam are still grappling with the contempt and neglect that occurred in their town.
"I'm still trying to figure that out," said Ms Corless. "I mean, these were a nursing congregation.
"The church preached to look after the vulnerable, the old and the orphaned, but they never included illegitimate children for some reason or another in their own psyche.
"I never, ever understand how they could do that to little babies, little toddlers. Beautiful little vulnerable children."
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BreakingNews.ie
30 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Preparatory work begins ahead of mass grave excavation at mother and baby home
Pre-excavation work on the site of a notorious former mother and baby home in Tuam in Co Galway has begun. The preparatory phase, which will last around four weeks, comes ahead of the full-scale excavation of the site to try to identify the remains of infants who died at the home between 1925 and 1961. Advertisement 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. Historian Catherine Corless. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA. The 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 Micheál Martin delivered an apology 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. Advertisement The work at the burial site, which is being undertaken by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT), will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible, and re-interment of the remains at the site. The pre-excavation work includes the installation of a 2.4-metre hoarding around the perimeter. The site of the Tuam mother and baby home. Photo: Niall Carson/PA. The site will now be subject to security monitoring on a 24-hour basis to ensure the forensic integrity of the site during the excavation. Ireland Weather: Met Éireann predicts warm week ahead with... Read More The excavation is anticipated to last two years. Advertisement Ahead of the preparatory work, Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the ODAIT, described the planned excavation as 'unique and incredibly complex'. One of Mr MacSweeney's main responsibilities will be to ensure any remains that are uncovered are re-interred in a respectful and appropriate way.
Sky News
3 hours ago
- Sky News
Dig for remains of 800 infants at former 'mother and baby home' in Ireland begins
A long-awaited forensic excavation at a former 'mother and baby home', where the remains of almost 800 babies and children are believed to be buried, will start today in County Galway. Many of the children who died at the institution in Tuam are believed to have been dumped into a former sewage tank, known as "the pit", according to local historian Catherine Corless. It was her painstaking research that uncovered the deaths of 798 children at the home for unmarried mothers between 1925 and its closure in 1961. Of those, just two were buried in a nearby cemetery. The remaining 796 are, it's presumed, buried at the site. "I'm feeling very relieved," the historian told Sky News as the excavation begins. "It's been a long, long journey. Not knowing what's going to happen, if it's just going to fall apart or if it's really going to happen." It exposed the dark underbelly of a mid-century Ireland heavily swayed by Catholicism and its cruel attitudes towards illegitimate children and the women who bore them, often sent to mother and baby homes before being separated from their offspring. A decade later, a team of investigators led by Daniel MacSweeney is embarking on a forensic excavation that could last for two years. The goal is to identify as many of the remains as possible through DNA testing, and to give all a dignified reburial. A seminal moment in the search for closure Stephen Murphy Ireland correspondent @SMurphyTV Every time I've stood on the damp grass at the Tuam site, I've experienced an eerie feeling of sadness or foreboding. Knowing that just a few feet below - many in a disused sewer system - are tiny human bones, fragments of children utterly dehumanised in death as in life, is deeply discomforting. They've lain there for decades, gradually exposed through local myths, historical research, lurid headlines, political outrage and state apologies. Now, for the first time, the remains of hundreds of stigmatised Irish children should finally be brought to the surface. It will be a painstaking forensic process, most likely lasting for years. The team will attempt to identify individual babies through DNA samples from living relatives, but it's expected that a large number will never be identified. For many relatives, the hope is for closure. This dig may offer physical remains for reburial to many of those families. But a more fundamental question will most likely never be answered: how could a Christian institution treat women at their most vulnerable with such cold inhumanity, and simply dump their dead children into a pit in the dank earth? It's a glimmer of hope for people like Annette McKay, who now lives in Manchester. Her mother Margaret "Maggie" O'Connor gave birth to a baby girl in the Tuam home in 1942 after being raped at 17. The girl, named Mary Margaret, died six months later. Annette remembers her late mother recalling how "she was pegging washing out and a nun came up behind her and said 'the child of your sin is dead'." Annette now hopes her infant sister's remains can be exhumed at Tuam and laid to rest with Maggie. Margaret O'Connor reunited with her child. "I don't care if it's a thimbleful, as they tell me there wouldn't be much remains left; at six months old, it's mainly cartilage more than bone. I don't care if it's a thimbleful for me to be able to pop Mary Margaret with Maggie. That's fitting." For Annette, now 71, Tuam is emblematic of a different time in Ireland. "We locked up victims of rape, we locked up victims of incest, we locked up victims of violence, we put them in laundries, we took their children, and we just handed them over to the Church to do what they wanted," she said. "My mother worked heavily pregnant, cleaning floors and a nun passing kicked my mother in the stomach. And when that place is opened, their dirty, ugly secret, it isn't a secret anymore. "It's out there. And we need to know from that dirty, ugly place what happened there. So first and foremost, we want answers to that place." The Irish government made a formal state apology in 2021 after an inquiry found an "appalling level of infant mortality" in Ireland's mother and baby homes, concluding that around 9,000 children had died in the 18 institutions investigated. Taoiseach Micheal Martin said at the time that "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 Sisters of Bon Secours, which had run the Tuam home, offered their "profound apologies", admitting the children were "buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way", and offered financial compensation. 12:55 As the dig - which could last up to two years - starts at the Bon Secours site, the people of Tuam are still grappling with the contempt and neglect that occurred in their town. "I'm still trying to figure that out," said Ms Corless. "I mean, these were a nursing congregation. "The church preached to look after the vulnerable, the old and the orphaned, but they never included illegitimate children for some reason or another in their own psyche. "I never, ever understand how they could do that to little babies, little toddlers. Beautiful little vulnerable children."
BBC News
6 hours ago
- BBC News
Tuam: Works to enable excavation of mass burial site to start
Works are beginning on Monday to allow the excavation of a mass burial site linked to a historic mother and baby institution in the Republic of 2016, investigators found what they described as "significant quantities of human remains" in underground chambers at the site in Tuam in County confirmed the bodies belonged to babies and children up to three years of former mother and baby institution was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, an order of Catholic nuns, and it closed in 1961. It provided accommodation for unmarried mothers and their children during a period when women were ostracised by Irish society, and often by their own families, if they became pregnant outside excavation work at the site will be overseen by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (ODAIT), an independent office established under the Irish Institutional Burials Act objective is to "recover and forensically analyse, and to memorialise and bury with respect and dignity, human remains recovered from the site".Family members and survivors of the institution will have an opportunity in the coming weeks to view the perimeter of the "forensically controlled site" to see the works being MacSweeney from ODAIT said from the start of works on Monday "the entire site, including the memorial garden, would only be accessible to staff carrying out the will be 24-hour security monitoring."The initial four weeks will involve setting up the site, including the installation of 2.4-metre hoarding around the perimeter," he 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." 'Unique and complex excavation' Mr MacSweeney added it was a "unique and incredibly complex excavation". "The work is expected to take approximately 24 months to complete," he said."The final timetable will depend on many variables, some of which may only become fully clear as the work progresses."The revelations about the burial ground came to international attention when a local historian, Catherine Corless, discovered there were death certificates for 796 children and infants, but no burial Irish government set up a Commission of Investigation into the network of historic mother-and-baby institutions in the found the chambered structure containing the children's remains at Tuam was in a disused sewage work getting under way at the site on Monday is yet another part of a process of discovery which will once more shine a light on a troubling period of Irish social history.
