Overview

• Exhumation of the remains of 796 children began on July 14, 2025 at the site of the former St Mary mother-and-baby home in Tuam.
• An international forensic team led by Daniel MacSweeney and Niamh McCullagh will carry out the two-year excavation.
• DNA sampling from more than 30 relatives is underway to facilitate identification of the children.
• The operation was enabled by a 2022 law authorizing digs and the 2023 appointment of a specialised excavation team.
• Historians uncovered evidence in 2014 of secret burials of infants who died between 1925 and 1960 under church-run institutional care.