Overview

• Ireland’s Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention launched excavations on July 14 at the former St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam to start a two-year forensic investigation.
• Archaeologists, anthropologists and crime scene experts from Ireland, Spain, Colombia, Britain, Canada and the United States are methodically exhuming remains from a disused subterranean septic tank.
• DNA samples collected from about 30 relatives will expand over the coming months to support efforts to match recovered remains with families.
• A 2.4-metre perimeter hoarding and 24-hour security are in place to safeguard the forensic integrity of the excavation area.
• The probe follows Catherine Corless’s 2014 research that uncovered 796 child deaths between 1925 and 1961 and is empowered by the 2022 Institutional Burials Act.