The long-awaited forensic excavation has begun at the former “mother and baby home” in County Galway, on the west coast of Ireland, where remains of around 800 infants have been discovered.
It is believed that the babies who died at the institution were dumped into a former sewage tank, known as “the pit.”
The home has been closed for over 60 years and according to reports, the children died there between 1925 and 1961.
Local historian Catherine Corless was the first to draw attention to what had been happening behind closed doors at the institution, after two 12-year-old boys discovered a septic tank reportedly filled with human bones.
The “mother and baby home” housed women who fell pregnant outside marriage, something that was not acceptable in Ireland at the time. These women were often sent to such institutions at the request of their own families, according to the Daily Mail.
Speaking to Sky News, Corless said she felt “relieved” the excavation process of the 800 infants finally started.
“It’s been a long, long journey,” she told the outlet. “Not knowing what’s going to happen, if it’s just going to fall apart or if it’s really going to happen.”
Her findings of the site were made public in 2014.
The news of the babies’ remains made headlines and shocked Ireland.
Reportedly, there were over 10 “mother and baby homes” in Ireland in the past. They took in around 35,000 single women across the decades.
The moms were separated from their babies who were often given up for adoption.
A 2021 investigation revealed a shocking rate of infant deaths in similar institutions nationwide. Allegedly, approximately 9,000 children died in 18 such homes.
“The church preached to look after the vulnerable, the old and the orphaned, but they never included illegitimate children for some reason or another in their own psyche,” Corless said after The Sisters of Bon Secours, the Catholic order of nuns responsible for operating the Tuam home where excavations have begun, expressed their “profound apologies.”
“I never, ever understand how they could do that to little babies, little toddlers. Beautiful little vulnerable children.”
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