Overview
- The dig, launched July 14 under the two-year Institutional Burials Act mandate, is led by Daniel MacSweeney with support from forensic experts in Ireland, Britain and beyond.
- Workers have unearthed infant bones within a defunct septic tank and surrounding grounds of the former Bon Secours mother and baby home.
- ODAIT has collected DNA samples from nearly 100 relatives in the UK, US, Canada and Australia to help match remains with lost family members.
- Recovered remains are being meticulously processed and cataloged at an on-site facility before laboratory analysis and identification.
- This excavation marks Ireland’s formal effort to confront church-run institutional abuses following a 2021 state apology and the 2022 legal reform empowering forensic recovery.