Families and survivors of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home are to visit the site today ahead of its major excavation next week.

The excavation of the site of St Mary’s Mother and Baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway, will try to identify the infants who died at the home between 1925 and 1961.

In 2014, tireless research led by local historian Catherine Corless indicated that 796 babies and young children were buried in a sewage system at the institution across that time period. Her findings were first published in our sister paper, the Irish Mail on Sunday. The home was run by the Bon Secours Sisters.

Local historian Catherine Corless. Pic: PA Wire

In 2021, Taoiseach Micheál Martin apologised on behalf of the State for the treatment of women and children housed in mother and baby homes across Ireland.

The Bon Secours Sisters also offered a ‘profound apology’ after acknowledging the order had ‘failed to protect the inherent dignity’ of women and children in the Tuam home. Ms Corless said yesterday she found it ‘overwhelming’ to see the excavation work proceed after her 10-year campaign. ‘

There was no will to do anything for those babies except leave them there and put a monument over them,’ she said. ‘But this was a sewer system, and I couldn’t give up on them. They were all baptised, they deserve to be in consecrated ground.’

Excavation workers on site in Tuam. Pic: PA Wire

Ms Corless said it was a ‘huge relief’ to ‘let go and back off’, after being faced with obstacles during her campaign from people she thought would be helpful. ‘It is huge for me to know those babies are finally going to get the dignity they deserve – it is a wrong put right,’ she said.

Anna Corrigan, who discovered she had two older brothers born while her mother lived at the Tuam home, visited the site yesterday. She said: ‘These children were denied every human right in their lifetime, as was their mothers.

‘They were denied dignity – and were denied dignity and respect in death. I’m hoping today maybe will be the start of hearing them because I think they’ve been crying for an awful long time to be heard.’

An excavation worker on site in Tuam. Pic: PA Wire

The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention Tuam (ODAIT) dig will involve exhumation, analysis, identification, if possible, and re-interment of remains. Yesterday, the ODAIT gave the press access to the site, which is surrounded by 2.4-metre hoarding and is subject to 24-hour security monitoring.

The dig is scheduled to begin on Monday and is expected to last two years. Daniel MacSweeney, the ODAIT leader, said the family-and-survivor visit will be ‘the most important event of the week’, adding: ‘We continue to work closely with residents living close to the site to ensure minimum disruption.’

He said they would work with international best practices in their bid to restore dignity in death for the infants, adding remains would be reburied following consultation with families.

Forensic archaeologist Dr Niamh McCullagh said a 2016 ‘test excavation’ discovered 20 chambers within an old sewage tank contained infant remains ranging from 35 foetal weeks to three years old. Work will involve a long process of recovering and separating ‘mixed-up’ skeletal remains, sorting them by age and sex. This will allow each child to be identified.

It is hoped identification can take place with the help of families’ DNA, as well as other records. So far, 14 people have provided their DNA, and 80 others have expressed interest in doing so.