The horror of Tuam The search for almost 800 baby corpses has begun
The search for almost 800 baby and child corpses has begun in Ireland.
Image: dpa
The fate of almost 800 babies and toddlers shocked Ireland.
Image: dpa
Many people mourned the babies and toddlers who were thrown away like garbage.
Image: dpa
The search for almost 800 baby and child corpses has begun in Ireland.
Image: dpa
The fate of almost 800 babies and toddlers shocked Ireland.
Image: dpa
Many people mourned the babies and toddlers who were thrown away like garbage.
Image: dpa
The young mothers experienced sheer horror: their newborns were disposed of like garbage. Years after the first finds on the site of a demolished mother and child home, digging is underway again in Ireland.
18.06.2025, 15:54
18.06.2025, 15:55
dpa
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- In Ireland, a Catholic home for unwed mothers dumped hundreds of babies' and children's bodies in a sewage system.
- The mass grave was discovered during a trial excavation in 2017.
- Now the exhumation of almost 800 baby and child corpses has begun.
The small, somewhat run-down playground could be in any other town. Swings, football goals, nothing special. But beneath the concrete and grass here, in Tuam in western Ireland, there is presumably evidence of the unspeakable horrors that mothers, especially those who were abandoned by their families, once had to endure. This week, work began on the search for almost 800 babies' and children's bodies.
As a first step, barriers were erected on the former site of a long since demolished mother and child home and further preparations were made. The actual excavations will take months - and will once again remind Ireland of its dark past.
Newborns and infants were disposed of like garbage in the facility, which was run by nuns. Extramarital relationships and the babies born from them were despised at the time. The women practically lost their right to exist, even if they were rape victims.
Test excavations brought shocking results to light
The mass grave had already been discovered during a trial excavation in 2017. Human remains were found in "considerable quantities", as it was called at the time - foetuses and infants up to three years old. During the current excavation, as many as possible are to be identified by DNA tests and reburied.
Research by historian Catherine Corless in the years before the trial excavation had revealed that hundreds of children had died in the facility between 1925 and 1961 but had not been buried. It is believed that 796 infants and young children were disposed of in and around the sewage system.
"I'm very relieved," the Sky News channel quotes historian Corless as saying. "It's been a long journey." For a long time, she had not known what to do next. A permit for a systematic excavation had already been granted in 2018. "Many companies and officials wanted to keep the matter secret and just erect a monument," Corless told the Irish Times.
The suffering of Tuam is not an isolated case
A small section of the site already commemorates the dead. The lawn is lush green and the large numbers 7, 9 and 6 can be seen on the stonework. A small memorial plaque with two angels was placed next to the small gate. The nuns from St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home belonged to the Catholic order The Sisters of Bon Secours.
Tuam is not an isolated case. An independent report published at the beginning of 2021 revealed huge abuses in the country's state-controlled mother and baby homes run by religious organizations. Between 1922 and 1998, around 9,000 babies and children are said to have died in the facilities investigated. The unmarried women were exploited, sometimes kept like slaves.
The head of government at the time, Micheál Martin, who is now back in office, publicly apologized for the suffering. Irish church representatives also expressed their remorse. However, the process of coming to terms with the past is far from complete.
