The Irish government could face action in court from survivors and victims of the Tuam Mother and Baby Home if they decide not to excavate the site.
The sister of two young boys who are believed to have been among the victims of the Tuam Mother and Baby home has said that she will take a case to the Irish High Court if the site were it is thought hundreds of babies are buried is not properly excavated.
Anna Corrigan from Co Dublin was among over a hundred people who met with Irish Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone on Monday evening to discuss the future of the Tuam site.
In March 2017, the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes found “significant” evidence of the remains of hundreds of children at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co Galway.
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Anna Corrigan to Minister Zappone: “This is a spider web and it spreads out all over Ireland and you Minister are terrified of it. Tuam is only a microcosm. If we get Tuam right, everything else follows.” #Tuambabies
— Donal O'Keeffe (@Donal_OKeeffe) July 23, 2018
Set up in February 2015 after the tireless work of local historian Catherine Corless revealed the death certificates for 796 children in the home whose burial place could not be accounted for, the investigation has shown that the remains of these unaccounted-for children may have been placed in a mass grave where there is now a septic tank on the site.
“My brothers went missing as babies while they were supposedly cared for by the Bons Secours nuns. John Desmond Dolan is believed to have died in 1947 and is buried in the septic tank,” Corrigan told Extra.ie.
“My other brother William Joseph who was born in 1950 is marked as dead in the nuns’ ledgers, but there is no death cert for him. I want them found. I want the site excavated. There are laws… regarding graves and this situation should be handed over to the Department of Justice.”
Monday evening’s meeting took place as the Irish government decides how to proceed with the site and whether it will be excavated and the remains identified or if it will be left and a memorial erected without carrying out any DNA testing on the remains that lie there.
Read more: Fight for forensic excavation on 796 Tuam Babies mass grave
#tuambabies @mynamesisbridge @tuambabiesfami1 Please help me, please help us all. @APSARA1956 Anna Corrigan (Sister of the Doaln Brothers) P.R. @tuambabiesfami1 FACEBOOK: Tuam Babies Family Group. https://t.co/ADPVJ43Lvh
— Anna Corrigan (@APSARA1956) June 18, 2018
Corrigan, who heads up the Tuam Babies Family Group, believes that the site should be excavated and she is willing to keep fighting, even going to court, until this happens.
Initially due to deliver its full report on the 14 homes former homes, including Tuam, in February 2018, the investigation has now been allowed a further year to complete its research and interviews.
A final decision will be made by the Government regarding the future of the Tuam home in the next months.
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