Latest news with #infantremains
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
Preparatory work to identify remains of 800 infants at Irish mother and baby home begins
Preliminary work aimed at identifying the remains of nearly 800 infants is starting on the site in Tuam, Co Galway, as Ireland continues to wrestle with the traumatic legacy of its mother and baby homes scandal. Catherine Corless, a local historian who first sounded the alarm about the dark past of the institution run by nuns from the Bon Secours order, uncovered the names of 796 infants who are believed to have been buried there between 1925 and 1961, some in a disused subterranean septic tank. There were no burial records. On Monday, excavation crews began sealing off the site before the search for remains next month. 'There are so many babies, children just discarded here,' Corless told Agence France-Presse. It was Corless's work that led to an Irish commission of investigation into the so-called mother and baby homes, to which young women and girls were sent for decades to give birth in, rather than in hospital or at home. Doubling as orphanages and adoption agencies for much of the 20th century, the institutions were run by religious orders with sanction by the state, which overlooked deprivation, misogyny, stigma and high infant mortality rates. The government made a formal state apology in 2021 after the commission report. In Tuam, hoarding has been placed around the excavation site, now in the middle of a housing estate. The preliminary work is expected to last four weeks before a full-scale excavation begins on 14 July. The site was once a workhouse and the search for the infants' remains could be complicated by the fact that victims of the 19th century great famine are also thought to be buried there. Daniel MacSweeney, who is overseeing the operation, told RTE radio: 'It's an incredibly complex challenge because of the size of the site and the fact that we are dealing with infant remains that we know, at least in the case of the memorial gardens (on the site), are co-mingled.' The existence of mother and baby homes has been described as a dark stain on Irish society. In 2017, the then taoiseach Enda Kenny described what was revealed about Tuam as 'a chamber of horrors'. Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion Speaking in the Dáil, the Irish parliament, he didn't spare his fellow citizens. 'No nuns broke into our homes to kidnap our children. We gave them up to what we convinced ourselves was the nuns' care. We gave them up maybe to spare them the savagery of gossip, the wink and the elbow language of delight in which the holier-than-thous were particularly fluent. We gave them up because of our perverse, in fact, morbid relationship with what is called respectability,' he added.
BreakingNews.ie
11 hours ago
- General
- 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.
