Overview

• Excavation teams this week started digging at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, where up to 796 infants and young children are believed to lie in a disused septic tank Historian Catherine Corless’s 2014 research revealed that 798 children died at the home between 1925 and 1961 yet only two were formally buried in a cemetery
• Forensic experts will exhume remains, conduct DNA and pathology tests to identify victims and return identified remains to families while providing dignified reburials for the rest
• A 2022 law removed legal barriers to the probe and officials estimate the full excavation and analysis could take up to two years
• The project follows a 2021 state apology acknowledging 9,000 child deaths across 18 mother-and-baby homes and aims to offer closure to survivors and descendants