Excavation finally starts at site where infants were thrown into sewage chambers after dying of starvation and neglect
A grim excavation has begun in Ireland to unearth the remains of nearly 800 babies and children believed to have been dumped in a septic tank at a former Catholic-run home for unwed mothers.
Work started Monday at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, where 798 children died between 1925 and the home’s closure in 1961, with most believed to have been callously disposed of in what locals called “the pit”.
The long-awaited dig comes after years of campaigning by local historian Catherine Corless, whose painstaking research exposed one of Ireland’s darkest secrets and shocked the world when it emerged in 2014.
‘It’s Been a Long, Long Journey’
I’m feeling very relieved,” the historian told Sky News as the excavation begins. “It’s been a long, long journey. Not knowing what’s going to happen, if it’s just going to fall apart or if it’s really going to happen.”
Corless’s detective work revealed that of the 798 children who died at the home, just two were buried in a nearby cemetery. The remaining 796 are, it’s presumed, buried at the site.
The discoveries have laid bare the cruel reality of mid-20th century Ireland, where unmarried mothers and their “illegitimate” children were treated as outcasts by a society dominated by strict Catholic morality.
Babies Starved to Death
The causes of death paint a horrifying picture of neglect and cruelty. According to documents Corless provided the Irish Mail on Sunday, malnutrition and neglect killed many of the children, while others died of measles, convulsions, TB, gastroenteritis and pneumonia.
Even more shocking, Corless tracked down death certificates showing that eighteen children died of starvation – yes, they were starved to death.
The death toll was staggering – reports suggested that as many as two babies were dying per week at the Tuam home, which housed hundreds of women and children at any one time.
Mass Grave in Underground Chambers
A 2017 investigation by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission confirmed the worst fears when they discovered human remains in an “underground structure divided into 20 chambers.
Tests conducted on some of the remains indicated they had been aged between 35 foetal weeks and 2-3 years. The commission said the structure “appeared to be a sewage tank”.
The gruesome discovery was first made by accident. Two local boys reportedly unearthed the concrete-covered tank used by the home while playing in 1975 and found hundreds of children’s bones inside.
‘Kinder to Strangle These Children’
The attitudes of the time were laid bare in a shocking 1924 quote discovered by journalist Elaine Byrne. Doctor Ella Webb said: “A great many people are always asking what is the good of keeping these children alive? I quite agree that it would be a great deal kinder to strangle these children at birth than to put them out to nurse”.
The story of Doctor Webb’s comments was in the Irish Times that day in 1924. It was allowed to go without outrage or question.
Nationwide Scandal
The Tuam home was far from unique. A damning 2021 government report found that some 9,000 children died in Ireland’s church-run homes for unwed mothers – equivalent to 15% of all children in these institutions.
In 1944, infant mortality rates at the Bessborough home peaked at 82%. Only 64 of those 900 babies’ graves have ever been located.
The commission also found that between 1920 and 1977, the bodies of more than 950 children who had died in some of the homes were sent to university medical schools for “anatomical studies.
Women’s Ordeal
“When daughters became pregnant, they were ostracized completely,” Corless said. “Families would be afraid of neighbors finding out, because to get pregnant out of marriage was the worst thing on Earth. It was the worst crime a woman could commit, even though a lot of the time it had been because of a rape.
The 2021 report described how women giving birth were sometimes “verbally insulted, degraded and even slapped”, with the report noting “It appears that there was little kindness shown to them and this was particularly the case when they were giving birth”.
Church Response
When human remains were confirmed in 2017, the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, said he was “greatly shocked to learn of the scale of the practice during the time in which the Bon Secours ran the mother and baby home in Tuam.
The Bon Secours Sisters eventually apologised in 2021, stating: “We acknowledge in particular that infants and children who died at the Home were buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way. For all that, we are deeply sorry”.
Government Action
Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin issued a formal state apology in 2021, saying “We embraced the perverse religious morality and control, judgementalism and moral certainty but shunned our daughters.
He added that Irish society had a “completely warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy” for which “young mothers and their sons and daughters” were “forced to pay the price.
Excavation Process
The excavation is being led by forensic experts who previously worked with teams searching for victims of the Northern Ireland conflict. The goal is to recover and identify remains, allowing families to finally give their relatives proper burials.
Ms Corless’s findings in 2014 shocked Ireland and made headlines around the world, exposing what many see as one of the darkest chapters in Ireland’s history.
For the families of the lost children and the survivors of Ireland’s mother and baby homes, the excavation represents a chance for closure – and for the tiny victims to finally be treated with the dignity they were denied in life.
