Nearly 800 infant remains to be exhumed from former Irish mother and baby home
A mass grave with the remains of babies and young children was discovered hidden in a sewage tank on the grounds of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland
On Monday, Irish officials began the somber process of excavating a former church-affiliated institution for unwed mothers and their babies, revealing that records indicate nearly 800 children died there.
The excavation at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, marks the beginning of efforts over ten years after historian Catherine Corless unveiled her findings that 796 infants died at the site.
Follow-up probes exposed a mass interment with infant and young child remains secreted within a sewage system at the facility, which Catholic sisters operated until its 1961 shutdown.
Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin expressed his reaction to the unsettling history associated with the location, noting that it represents a "very difficult, harrowing story."
"We have to wait to see what unfolds now as a result of the excavation," Martin told The Associated Press.
Corless's pivotal research from 2014, which uncovered death certificates for nearly 800 children but only one burial record at the home, prompted further scrutiny.
For much of the previous century, Ireland was dotted with church-run homes for single pregnant women and their children. Today, Ireland faces a troubling history connected to these sites, including the mistreatment endured by single mothers, many of whom were forced to give away their children.
A 2021 report uncovered the heartbreaking history of 9,000 children perishing in 18 mother and baby homes across the last century. The predominant killers? Respiratory infections and gastroenteritis.
The investigation highlighted a stark lack of outcry over the conditions at these institutions or the horrific death rates amongst infants born there, noting there was "no evidence of public concern being expressed about conditions" in these homes or about the "appalling mortality among the children born in these homes."
Meanwhile, the dig at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home is slated to continue for another two years.