Ireland to exhume remains of children buried in secret at church-run home

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - Preliminary work is underway in western Ireland ahead of a major excavation at the site of a former church-run institution, where the remains of nearly 800 children are believed to be buried in unmarked and undocumented graves.

The operation, taking place in the town of Tuam, County Galway, marks a significant development more than a decade after suspicions were first raised about mass burials at the former Mother and Baby Home, which operated from 1925 to 1961.

According to Irish media, access was restricted early Monday to a memorial garden and adjacent children’s playground located in the Dublin Road housing estate.

Over the next four weeks, the area—around 5,000 square meters—will be placed under forensic control in preparation for a full archaeological excavation and exhumation.

The effort is being led by the Office of the Director of Authorized Intervention in Tuam, a state body established for the investigation.

It will involve a detailed forensic search of the land in an attempt to locate, recover, and possibly identify the remains of 796 babies and young children who died at the institution and for whom there are no official burial records.

For survivors and relatives of those who lived and died at the Tuam Home, the development is both historical and emotional.

The Tuam Mother and Baby Home was run by the Bon Secours religious order and, like other such homes across Ireland, was part of a now widely condemned system that housed unmarried mothers and their children, often separating them permanently.

Many children died due to neglect, malnutrition, or lack of medical care.

The scale of the tragedy first came to international attention in 2014, after local historian Catherine Corless uncovered death records for 796 children but no burial records.

Her research suggested many had been buried in a decommissioned sewage tank on the property.

In 2017, the official Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes confirmed that “significant quantities of human remains” had been found in underground chambers at the Tuam site.

The upcoming excavation—expected to begin in mid-July—is being seen as a long-overdue step toward justice.

The Irish government issued a formal apology in 2021 to the survivors of mother-and-baby institutions, acknowledging the “profound failure” of the state.