Irish authorities have begun to dig a site in Tuam, Galway County, where the remains of 796 babies are feared to be buried in a septic tank in disuse in an old house managed by Catholics for single mothers.
The site, which once home to the mother of the mother and the baby of Bon Secours, operated by the order of the nuns of Bon Secours from 1925 to 1961, housed thousands of women, many of them victims of rape or abuse who were forced to abandon their children.
The institution was part of a broader system of religious houses supported by the Irish state.
The mass tomb came to light for the first time in 2014, when local historian Catherine Corless discovered death certificates for 798 children associated with the home, but found burial records for only one.
His research, which revealed that many of the children's remains may have been ruled out in an old septic tank in the facilities, triggered national outrage and government investigation.
“This well here can contain the remains of 796 small souls,” Corless told Sky News. “It's a national shame.”
The excavation, which began this week, marks the beginning of efforts to recover and identify the remains, a process is expected to last up to two years. The objective is to give children long dignity through adequate burials.
Annette McKay, whose sister Mary Margack believes she is among the dead, recalled the moment when a mother, Margaret “Maggie” O'Connor, was informed of his baby's death by a nun.
“He was looking and a nun stayed behind her and said: 'The son of your sin is dead,” McKay said. His mother had been raped at age 17 and confined to Tuam's house to give birth to the child.
The investigations revealed that some of the remains belonged to babies of only 35 weeks in the uterus. Many died from preventable diseases such as gastroenteritis and respiratory infections due to negligence.
The Tuam institution was part of an 18 -houses network where it is estimated that 9,000 children died, according to an investigation by the Irish government of 2021. Women who were pregnant again were sent to the laundries of Magdalene, infamous religious institutions for the so -called “falling women”.
While the Irish government issued a formal apology to the survivors in 2014 and introduced a repair scheme in 2022, activists say justice is far from being complete. To date, more than $ 32 million have been paid to more than 800 survivors.
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