Tuam Mother and Baby Home: Full forensic excavation commences

The ground at the former Mother and Baby Home Institution in Tuam, Co Galway - where it is believed that 796 children were buried in a mass, unmarked grave - was broken to begin the full forensic excavation at 10:38 today, Monday, July 14.

The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) says the forensic excavation is expected to take approximately 24 months to complete.

Access to the entire site is now closed off to the public, and it is also concealed from view, with 24-hour security in place and 2.4-meter hoarding erected around the perimeter.

“These measures are necessary to ensure the site’s forensic integrity and to enable us to carry out the works to the highest international standards that govern the excavation and recovery programme," Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the ODAIT, said on Monday.

Dr. Niamh McCullagh, ODAIT’s Senior Forensic Consultant, is leading the forensic excavation alongside other Irish specialists and international experts from Colombia, Spain, the UK, Canada, Australia, and the US.

ODAIT says its multidisciplinary forensic approach to the complex challenge of the excavation is grounded in the expertise of forensic archaeologists, osteoarchaeologists, forensic anthropologists, together with experts in crime scene management, including evidence management and forensic photography.

A visit for families and survivors to view the site ahead of the commencement of the full excavation took place last Tuesday, organized by ODAIT.

About the Tuam Mother and Baby Home in Co Galway

The Tuam Mother and Baby Home was an institution for unmarried mothers and their children. Run by the Bon Secours Sisters, it operated from 1925 to 1961.

In 2014, local amateur historian Catherine Corless was researching the Tuam Home's history when she discovered records showing that 796 children had died at the Home, but burial records could not be found, sparking suspicion of a mass grave at the site.

“Significant quantities” of human remains were discovered at the site in 2016 and 2017.

In January 2021, nearly six years after the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation was launched, the Final Report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was published.

Including the Tuam Home, the Commission investigated 18 homes across Ireland, ultimately finding that "a total of about 9,000 children died in the institutions under investigation - about 15% of all the children who were in the institutions."

The report later states: "There is no single explanation for the appalling level of infant mortality in Irish mother and baby homes."

The report says that "a particular catalyst" for the formation of the investigative Commission "was the discovery by Catherine Corless of the possible burial arrangements for children who died in the Tuam Children’s Home."

Following the publication of the report, the Irish Government offered a formal apology to victims, survivors, and their relatives.

In November 2021, the Irish Government published its Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. Part of the plan was a commitment to "advance burials legislation to support the excavation, exhumation and, where possible, identification of remains, and their dignified reburial."

In July 2022, the Institutional Burials Act became law, allowing exhumations to take place at former Mother and Baby Homes across Ireland. The Irish Government established ODAIT as part of the Act that October, and in May 2023, Daniel MacSweeney was tasked with overseeing the excavations of children's remains at the site at Tuam.

Pre-excavation works at the site began on June 16, and a media day was hosted on July 7, when it was confirmed that international experts had joined Irish specialists to start the forensic excavation.