Latest news with #CountyGalway
ABC News
15-07-2025
- General
- ABC News
Exhumations begin in Ireland of mass grave of babies
The full excavation of a mass grave of babies and young children at Tuam in County Galway has begun. The exhumations will be carried out at the site of an institution for unmarried mothers which operated between 1925 and 1961. Laura Tchilinguirian spoke with Paul Quinn, a TV reporter with Virgin Media News Ireland.
The Guardian
15-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Dig begins at site in Ireland believed to hold remains of nearly 800 infants
A century after Irish nuns first began to bury hundreds of infants in what would become a mass, unmarked grave, archaeologists and other specialists will start excavating the site in Tuam, County Galway. A mechanical digger is to slowly start scraping earth on Monday at the 5,000-sq-metre (53,820 sq ft) site where the Bon Secours order is believed have interred 796 infants who died at the St Mary's mother and baby home between 1925 and 1961. The operation, which is expected to last two years, marks a new stage in Ireland's reckoning with the abuse and neglect of children in religious and state-run institutions, especially those who bore the stigma of being born out of wedlock. Their treatment has been called a stain on the nation's conscience. At St Mary's in Tuam, a so-called mother and baby home where young women and girls were sent to give birth, some infants were buried in a disused subterranean septic tank. There were no burial records and the deaths were ignored until a decade ago when Catherine Corless, a local historian, uncovered death certificates for 796 infants. This led to a judicial commission, a state apology and a promise to excavate the site. 'I'm very, very relieved to know it's happening at last,' said Corless. 'It was a very long haul. It's a bit overwhelming. I've been so long waiting for it. It's a joy for me and for the families that are waiting in hope that they will find their own little relative.' Much of the excavation site – which is in the middle of a housing estate – has been sealed off and the office of the director for authorised intervention in Tuam (Odait) group has done preparatory work. The 18-strong team, which includes archaeologists, anthropologists and other forensic experts from Ireland, the UK, Australia, Colombia, Spain and the US, is led by Daniel MacSweeney, a former International Committee of the Red Cross envoy. The operation aims to recover all the human remains, attempt to identify them, return them to their families and rebury them with dignity. The size and location of the site, water filtration and the co-mingling of remains, plus the proximity of other remains from the 19th-century famine and workhouse eras, made the operation highly complex, said MacSweeney. 'All these together really compound the challenge,' he said. 'This is a recovery to a forensic standard, so it's like a police investigation scene. Our team includes people with expertise in crime scene management. The legislation requires us to call the coroner or the Gardaí [police] if we find evidence of unnatural death.' The digger, which has a special bucket without teeth, would work slowly and pause when archaeologists saw something of interest, said MacSweeney. The team has offices and a laboratory on site that can do preliminary analysis before sending material to a bigger lab. Some relatives of the dead children have provided DNA samples. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion The Bon Secours nuns ran their institution with sanction by the Irish state, which overlooked deprivation, misogyny and high infant mortality rates. The Tuam home closed in 1961 and was demolished; a housing estate was built on the site. In 1975 two boys foraging for apples stumbled across human bones in the abandoned septic tank. Authorities took no action until Corless, a former textile factory secretary with an interest in local history, published research that was picked up by local and then national and international media in 2014. The actor Liam Neeson is co-producing a feature film that is to begin filming in Galway later this year. Corless said she hoped the remains, which are about 2 metres below the surface, would be identified and pieced together. 'So many little bones are commingled because water got in. Hopefully they'll be able to match them.' She has passed her records to the excavation team. 'They're top experts in their fields and are just as emotional about the whole thing as I am. They really want to get to the bottom of this.'
New York Times
14-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Dig for Children's Remains Begins at Irish Home for Unwed Mothers
Excavators broke ground on Monday in western Ireland to search for the bodies of hundreds of babies and young children, some of them discarded in septic tanks, who died at a home for unwed mothers that was managed by Catholic nuns from 1925 to 1961. The circumstances of the children's short lives, the treatment of the mothers and the decades of secrecy surrounding the deaths have been recognized widely as a profound moral stain on the Irish government, which funded the institution, and the Catholic Church, which managed it. About half of the children, estimated to number about 800 in all, died before their first birthdays. 'Some of the families have been really seeking answers to these questions for many years,' Daniel MacSweeney, who directs the excavation, said in an interview. He leads the Office of the Director of Authorized Intervention, Tuam, an independent organization established by the Irish government in 2022 to recover the remains. The team began with small motorized diggers, Mr. MacSweeney said, while specialists watched for signs of remains. Once bodies appear, he said, the work will continue by hand, noting 'the complexity of the challenge.' Scientists estimate that infant bodies lie 'commingled' in the tanks under St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, a town in County Galway in the west of Ireland. The institution was long one of the most notorious homes for unwed mothers in Ireland. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
14-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Tuam: Full excavation of mass baby grave due to begin
The full excavation of a mass grave of babies and young children at Tuam in County Galway is due to begin later on exhumations will be carried out at the site of an institution for unmarried mothers, which operated between 1925 and story came to international attention 11 years ago, after amateur historian Catherine Corless discovered there were death certificates for 796 babies and children who were in the institution, but no burial 2017, investigators found what they described as "significant quantities of human remains" at the site. The bodies were in underground chambers in a disused sewage institution, which was known as St Mary's mother-and-baby home, was run by Catholic religious order the Bon Secours Sisters and owned by Galway County from Colombia, Spain, the UK, Canada, Australia and the United States have joined Irish specialists to take part in the unprecedented excavation process. The agency carrying out the operation is the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT), which took control of the site four weeks ago to begin preparatory is led by Daniel MacSweeney, who has described the excavation as "unique and incredibly complex".Scientists say the remains are largely "commingled" – in other words, the bones are mixed up.A number of methods will be used to try to put remains back together and, where possible, identify is thought the excavation will go on until 2027, with follow-up work continuing for another three 80 people have so far come forward to give DNA samples, in the hope the bodies of their relatives may be Corrigan, who had two brothers who were born in the institution, said if they were found she would inter them with her mother Bridget Dolan."It'll be closure, because I can put on her headstone – 'pre-deceased by her sons John and William," she said."I can't do that at the moment, because I can't be sure if they're dead or not."An entry in the institution's "discharges" ledger says William Joseph Dolan died in there is no death certificate for him. In 2013, Anna reported him to An Garda Síochána (the Irish police service) as a missing following year, she also asked police to investigate what happened to John Desmond Dolan.A certificate from 1947 registers the causes of his death as "measles" and "congenital idiot"."I contended that he died of neglect and malnutrition," she said."After my mother left the home, she sent the nuns five shillings a month for his upkeep."So how did it come to this?"Solicitors KRW Law have pursued the matters on her behalf, but so far there has not been an is "glad" the excavation is going ahead – but she is also nervous."There's a possibility that in 2027, fifteen years on, I could still be back where I started," she said."With still no indication that my brothers are actually dead - or they could be walking around somewhere in some country, having been illegally adopted."She is also campaigning for the Irish government to use the legislation which allows the Tuam exhumation to authorise other excavations in aunt, Mary "Mollie" Corrigan, was 13 when she died in an industrial school in Loughrea in County Galway, and there is no record of where she is have been placed around the Tuam site, and 24-hour security will be in place while the excavation is carried out, with the area preserved to the same forensic standard as a police Bon Secours Sisters and Galway County Council have previously religious order has made a contribution of £2.14m towards the cost of the excavation.
The Guardian
14-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Dig begins at site in Ireland believed to hold remains of nearly 800 infants
A century after Irish nuns first began to bury hundreds of infants in what would become a mass, unmarked grave, archaeologists and other specialists will start excavating the site in Tuam, County Galway. A mechanical digger is to slowly start scraping earth on Monday at the 5,000-sq-metre (53,820 sq ft) site where the Bon Secours order is believed have interred 796 infants who died at the St Mary's mother and baby home between 1925 and 1961. The operation, which is expected to last two years, marks a new stage in Ireland's reckoning with the abuse and neglect of children in religious and state-run institutions, especially those who bore the stigma of being born out of wedlock. Their treatment has been called a stain on the nation's conscience. At St Mary's in Tuam, a so-called mother and baby home where young women and girls were sent to give birth, some infants were buried in a disused subterranean septic tank. There were no burial records and the deaths were ignored until a decade ago when Catherine Corless, a local historian, uncovered death certificates for 796 infants. This led to a judicial commission, a state apology and a promise to excavate the site. 'I'm very, very relieved to know it's happening at last,' said Corless. 'It was a very long haul. It's a bit overwhelming. I've been so long waiting for it. It's a joy for me and for the families that are waiting in hope that they will find their own little relative.' Much of the excavation site – which is in the middle of a housing estate – has been sealed off and the office of the director for authorised intervention in Tuam (Odait) group has done preparatory work. The 18-strong team, which includes archaeologists, anthropologists and other forensic experts from Ireland, the UK, Australia, Colombia, Spain and the US, is led by Daniel MacSweeney, a former International Committee of the Red Cross envoy. The operation aims to recover all the human remains, attempt to identify them, return them to their families and rebury them with dignity. The size and location of the site, water filtration and the co-mingling of remains, plus the proximity of other remains from the 19th-century famine and workhouse eras, made the operation highly complex, said MacSweeney. 'All these together really compound the challenge,' he said. 'This is a recovery to a forensic standard, so it's like a police investigation scene. Our team includes people with expertise in crime scene management. The legislation requires us to call the coroner or the Gardaí [police] if we find evidence of unnatural death.' The digger, which has a special bucket without teeth, would work slowly and pause when archaeologists saw something of interest, said MacSweeney. The team has offices and a laboratory on site that can do preliminary analysis before sending material to a bigger lab. Some relatives of the dead children have provided DNA samples. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion The Bon Secours nuns ran their institution with sanction by the Irish state, which overlooked deprivation, misogyny and high infant mortality rates. The Tuam home closed in 1961 and was demolished; a housing estate was built on the site. In 1975 two boys foraging for apples stumbled across human bones in the abandoned septic tank. Authorities took no action until Corless, a former textile factory secretary with an interest in local history, published research that was picked up by local and then national and international media in 2014. The actor Liam Neeson is co-producing a feature film that is to begin filming in Galway later this year. Corless said she hoped the remains, which are about 2 metres below the surface, would be identified and pieced together. 'So many little bones are commingled because water got in. Hopefully they'll be able to match them.' She has passed her records to the excavation team. 'They're top experts in their fields and are just as emotional about the whole thing as I am. They really want to get to the bottom of this.'
