Nearly 800 children perished at a church-run home for unmarried women in Tuam, Ireland, and forensic teams are now recovering some of their remains from what used to be a sewage system, according to an update released this week.
The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) announced this week that seven sets of newborn remains were recently discovered in an underground vaulted structure on the premises of the former Mother and Baby Home. Testing to determine the age of the remains and when the children died is currently underway, with results likely in several months, according to the agency.
The Tuam property has served as a workhouse from 1841 to 1918, where poor people were housed and forced to work in exchange for food and shelter, then as a military barracks from 1918 to 1925, and finally as the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home from 1925 to 1961.
Mother-and-baby homes in Ireland were institutions where unmarried pregnant women were taken to give birth, often administered by Catholic groups, and many infants who died there were never properly recognized or buried separately, according to the Associated Press.
According to the organization, the most recent discovery comprises seven sets of newborn remains, and excavation is taking place in stages around the site. During the same reporting period, crews documented personal goods such as a Bovril container and a razor.
Another excavation region on the property has yielded seven sets of historic skeletal remains corresponding with the workhouse era, according to the government. These remains are being handled in conjunction with the National Museum of Ireland.
Earlier state test digs revealed what officials described as “significant quantities” of juvenile remains within what had previously been part of the home’s sewage system. The organization has not provided a complete count of how many children may eventually be retrieved.
Catherine Corless, a local historian from Tuam, spent years going through death certificates and church records from the defunct facility, eventually documenting 796 children who died there. Many of these fatalities were not noted in burial records. Her work helped to raise awareness that a huge number of children could have been buried without markings or memorials.
Her results were first disregarded, and locals accused her of “giving Tuam a bad name,” PEOPLE said.
“It’s been a difficult battle. When I first started this, no one wanted to listen. Corless, 71, told AFP, “We are finally righting the wrongs.” “I was just begging: Take the babies out of this sewage system and give them the decent Christian burial that they were denied.”
