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Irish Examiner
16-06-2025
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Tuam grave exhumation: 'Deeply emotional' day for families as dig finally gets under way
The site of the former Tuam mother and baby home has now been sealed off to members of the public and will remain closed for at least two years for the first ever mass grave exhumation in Ireland. Containers, diggers, hoarding, and blockades now encompass the inner grounds of the Dublin Road housing estate, where the former Bons Secours-run mother and baby home operated for 40 years. From 9am on Monday, a team of construction workers under the direction of the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) loaded in equipment ahead of the mass grave exhumation. Trucks delivering equipment and barriers being erected at the site of the former mother and baby institution in Tuam, Co Galway. Picture: Andrew Downes All entrances into the playground, car park, and memorial garden are now blocked off with large black hoarding, as white steel containers were loaded into the grounds via diggers all day. After 11 years of campaigning, the grounds of the former institution will be excavated in the hope of finding the 796 children who died there from 1925 to 1961. All day in temperatures of up to 20C, a team of workers in hard hats climbed ladders, chaining containers to diggers, and load-in equipment into the cordoned off area as neighbours, campaigners, and survivors watched on. This is the beginning of the search for truth for the families of the children who have campaigned for more than a decade to have their loved ones taken out of the sewage tank where they were buried. Peter Mulryan, aged 80 from Galway, who is a survivor of the Tuam mother and baby home and has a younger sister Marian who died in the home, was there from the early hours to see the beginning of the works. Peter Mulryan and Selina Brogan of ODAIT at the site of the former mother and baby institution in Tuam. Picture: Andrew Downes He found out about Marian's existence in 2014 — she was listed as one of the children who died in the home. Mr Mulryan — who is also a member of the advisory committee to the ODAIT, Daniel MacSweeney — also learned by chance in recent years he has an older sister too. Speaking to the Irish Examiner, he said he felt 'deeply emotional' as the construction team began their work. 'I feel I will be able to sleep better at night now' he said. 'Just that something is being done, they are finally in there. 'So many of us were judged for being in there. My mother had three children out of marriage, which was considered so shameful and that is how I grew up, all this shame. Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam staff at the former mother and baby institution in Tuam, Co Galway, on Monday. Picture: Andrew Downes 'I am hoping it [the exhumation] will be straightforward. I am happier that it has finally come to fruition because it has been so frustrating these past 11 years. 'I was here early this morning to watch them putting up the hoarding. I rang my wife Kathleen, who has been with me all these years with my children. 'This is emotional'," I told her." He said despite the start of construction works, he still has some reservations. 'I am afraid to build up my hopes. There has been too many let-downs with all of this. 'I am waiting to find my sister, and hopefully it will give me the answers I have looked for. I have been waiting 11 years for the truth. 'Hopefully, I might be able to sleep properly when I find out one way or the other. But it is a moving time to see this finally unfold, we worked so hard to get to this point'. Trucks delivering equipment and barriers being erected at the site of the former mother and baby home. Picture: Andrew Downes Marian Mulryan is recorded as having died in the Tuam mother and baby home in February 1955, nine months after she was born there. Mr Mulryan took a High Court challenge against the Child and Family Agency in 2017 to try and compel the State to provide all of her documentation. I really hope that this exhumation will give us all the answers. I have given my DNA, and I hope we understand the truth. I would like to give her a proper burial if she is found. In 2022, the Institutions Burials Act was passed to allow for the first ever exhumation to take place. It is hoped other grounds in mother and baby homes across the country, where up to 9,000 children died during their operations, will now also be found. The names of the children in Tuam were discovered by local historian Catherine Corless, who was researching the home and the tiny children's memorial garden, to which locals paid respect by tending to it for decades. The exhumation will take place in five phases beginning near the car park first. Special temperature-controlled units will be onsite to store any remains that are found. The last section of the area to be excavated will be the memorial garden where in 2017 a significant quantity of children's remains dated from the home, were uncovered during test excavations on site. It is hoped the children can be given a respectful and dignified burial when they are found.
Irish Examiner
11-06-2025
- Irish Examiner
Gardaí may investigate if Tuam baby exhumation reveals evidence of unlawful deaths
Gardaí will launch an investigation if forensic specialists excavating the burial site of the Tuam babies uncover evidence that any of the infants died unlawfully. The long-awaited exhumation at the site of the former Bons Secours-run mother and baby home will begin on June 16. Hoarding will be erected around the entire site, situated in the middle of the Dublin Road housing estate, and it will be closed to the public from Monday. The actual dig will start on July 14. The Director of the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (ODAIT), who is overseeing the excavation, told the Irish Examiner that 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. Cork native Daniel MacSweeney said 'From Monday the area will be under forensic control, we basically have to treat it like a garda investigation. 'If we find evidence that a child died violently, we will be able to call the gardaí through the coroner Val Costello. 'We also have forensic archaeologists and anthropologists like Dr Niamh McCullough on site so they will know if there is an unnatural death. 'Dr Niamh McCullough works with the gardaí all the time and she will be able to say 'Yes that looks violent' and we will notify the coroner who then notifies the gardaí.' The country's first mass exhumation of a children's burial site follows a long-running campaign by families of the children and local historian Catherine Corless. In 2014, Ms Corless's research uncovered the names of the 796 children who died at the home between 1925 and 1961. The remains found during the exhumation will be stored on-site in specially designed, humidity- and temperature-controlled areas. The HSE is due to provide a larger storage facility to the team next year if required. 'We have a storage area on-site and a commitment from the HSE to provide a storage area in January or February,' said Mr MacSweeney. 'We have also a temporary off-site in Headford, if we don't find very much in the first few months, we do have an onsite place." Daniel Mac Sweeney, appointed by the Government as the Director of Authorised Intervention, will head up the independent office overseeing the excavation and recovery of children's remains at the site of the former Mother and Baby Institution in Tuam. Photo: Ray Ryan The Director explained that the exhumation will take place across five designated areas. 'We have to open the ground with a digger and take the soil off in very small layers and that is done with an archaeologist beside the construction team. 'So as soon as they see something of interest, they will begin the recovery, and they have to do that for the entire site". The forensic team will remain on-site for at least 24 months. The dig will start at the playground and finish at the area known as the children's grave, or the green area. 'We don't want to track any vehicles across the site because there could be remains anywhere on that site and if we go to the memorial garden first, we run the risk of damaging any remains that are somewhere else. 'If there is only one area that has remains – and that is the memorial garden it could be quicker than we anticipated.' Any remains recovered will have to be dated, he explained, because 'there could be famine-related remains.' 'We will have to deal with the national museum the coroner and the gardaí we have a scenario and plan for all.' DNA is currently being collected to help identify the children and match them with living relatives. So far, 50 people with a connection to the site — including some from America and Canada — have come forward. To date, 15 people have provided DNA samples, but more are expected once the exhumation begins and a wider campaign is launched. Mr MacSweeney confirmed that only one mother who was incarcerated in the Tuam home has so far provided DNA. The site measures between 4,500 and 5,000 square metres, and each area must be forensically examined. 'We have to be extremely careful and sensitive to maximise the chances of recovering the remains'. Families of the children are expected to visit the site with the Director of Intervention on July 8, with media permitted to attend two days later. 'Nobody will have access to the site during the exhumation,' said Mr MacSweeney. 'What is unique about this is it's a mass grave with infants and it's the age of the children that is different' he explained. 'They are so young and then there is the co-mingling, they are no longer in some cases, individuals, so it is hugely complex. 'We should be able to tell if a deceased child's entire body was placed in a grave and then if the body decomposed in situ versus the bones being moved. We should be able to know how they ended up in the tank when this is finished with the scientific results."
