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ITV News
5 hours ago
- Health
- ITV News
Mass forensic excavation begins to identify 796 babies and children buried in sceptic tank
The first mass forensic exhumation has begun at the site of a former Irish Catholic mother and baby institution, where it's believed the bodies of almost 800 babies and children are buried in a disused sewage tank. The former site of St Mary's Mother and Baby Home, in the town of Tuam, County Galway, was boarded up on Monday as forensic teams began the excavation process, expected to take around two years. The former institution, which operated between 1925 and 1961, was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic nuns, as a maternity home for unmarried mothers and their children. The building was demolished after it closed and the site, including a memorial garden for the dead, is now situated in the middle of a housing estate. In 2014, local historian Caroline Corless, who had been researching the home, discovered that 796 babies and children who died at the institution had been buried in a disused subterranean septic tank on the grounds. The findings sent shockwaves across the Republic of Ireland and globally, but it was not for another decade that plans for the site's excavation were announced, despite years of campaigning by survivors and their families. Annette McKay, who lives in Greater Manchester, believes her sister Mary Margaret O'Connor is one of the babies buried on the Co Galway site. Mary died at the institution aged six-weeks old in 1943 from whooping cough and heart failure. Her mother, Maggie O'Connor, was told "your child of sin is dead" and denied a funeral or proper burial for her baby. "Today feels overwhelming, after a decade of campaigning, delays and obfuscation the exhumation will begin," Ms McKay told ITV News. "I hope every child is identified and buried with dignity and respect. As a member of the advisory board I know how difficult and complex this whole process will be. My thoughts and prayers are with all the survivors and families." Ms O'Connor died in 2016 after suffering years of torment over the unanswered questions around the death of her firstborn. The Office of the Director of Authorised Interventions at Tuam (ODAIT), led by Daniel MacSweeney, a former International Committee of the Red Cross envoy, is in charge of exhuming the bodies. ODAIT say the purpose of the work is to "restore dignity in death and, where possible, an identity to those inappropriately buried at the site". It is hoped this will give relatives and survivors the chance to hold a dignified reburial for their loved ones. There has been a public appeal to anyone who suspects a family member may have died in the Tuam institution to come forward to provide DNA to help identify the children and match them with any living relatives. However, the process will be "challenging" due to the young age of the children, the elapse of time since their death, the environmental conditions in Tuam, and the "likely small number of close relatives who can provide samples", ODAIT says. Once the initial set-up stages are complete, the team will begin digging the ground in mid July, starting at the playground and finishing at the area known as the children's mass grave. Last week it was reported that a police investigation could be launched if the forensic specialists uncover evidence that any of the infants died unlawfully. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, a spokesperson for ODAIT said if any of the children died unnaturally, or if any remains found do not belong to children who lived at the home, gardaí will be notified. Earlier this year, ITV News revealed that as many as 10,000 women and babies may have been deported from Britain to Ireland between 1931 and 1977. Those children, now adults, often only found out they were British citizens decades later. Dr Lorraine Grimes from Maynooth University has spent a decade investigating these institutions. Her research interviews with survivors found that many were forced to travel, some while heavily pregnant, against their will. Those mothers and their young children would have been transferred to similar institutions like the Mother and Baby Home in Tuam. "They were prison-like institutions focused on rehabilitation of the woman's 'sin' - the sin being to have a child outside of marriage," Dr Grimes told ITV News. "These institutions were places of punishment and those who had more than one child outside of marriage were treated more harshly." In 2021 the Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin delivered a formal apology for historic forced adoption and the suffering caused. That apology was "accompanied by a Government Action Plan for Survivors providing for actions under eight themes including redress, access to records and memorialisation," a spokesperson for the Irish government said. 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. Speaking about the excavation on Monday, Mr Martin said: 'It's very significant day in respect of the excavation in Tuam. 'It's a very, very difficult harrowing story and situation. We have to wait to see what unfolds now as a result of the excavation.' Patrick Rodgers, regional manager of the charity Fréa, runs the group 'Renewing Roots' which supports those who were born or gave birth in Ireland's institutions and now live in the North of England. "The beginning of exhumation work at the grounds of the Tuam Mother and Baby institution is a vital step to restoring some measure of dignity to those whose deaths and manner of burial caused so much anguish," he told ITV News. "At this time we remember the loved ones of those buried at the site as well as those who are buried at other institutions across the country." For many survivors and their families, Monday marks a milestone moment. But their decades-long fight for justice for the 796 young lives lost still continues.
Sky News
18 hours ago
- General
- Sky News
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."
