Works to forensically excavate the site of the former Mother and Baby institution in Tuam, Co Galway, will start on Monday, June 16, the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) has confirmed.
The ODAIT said that families with relatives who were in the Tuam institution, as well as survivors of the institution, have already been informed about the timeline for the start of the excavation works. They will have an opportunity to view the site works as part of a Family and Survivors Day that ODAIT is holding in the coming weeks.
The ODAIT said it has been encouraging survivors and family members to visit the site before excavation commences on Monday, if they wish to do so. This is because, to protect the integrity of the examination, the site must be under forensic control and cannot be open to the public once work begins.
The ODAIT is an independent office established under the Institutional Burials Act 2022. ODAIT’s objectives are to recover and forensically analyse, and to memorialise and bury with respect and dignity, human remains recovered from the site of the former Mother and Baby Institution in Tuam, Co Galway.
“From the start of works on 16th June, the entire site, including the Memorial Garden, will be accessible only to staff carrying out the works and 24-hour security monitoring will be in place,” said Daniel MacSweeney, the lead of the ODAIT, said.
“The initial four weeks will involve setting up the site, including the installation of 2.4-metre hoarding 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."
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MacSweeney continued: “This is a unique and incredibly complex excavation. The work is expected to take approximately 24 months to complete. The final timetable will depend on many variables, some of which may only become fully clear as the work progresses.
“As the site will be under forensic control at all times during the excavation, we have encouraged families and survivors to visit the site, if they wished to do so, in recent weeks.
"In addition, we are putting in a place plans to facilitate a day for family members and survivors to include a visit to the perimeter of the forensically controlled site to view the works being undertaken. This will take place in the coming weeks.”
Any family members or survivors interested in joining the site visit are welcome to contact ODAIT at [email protected].
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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.
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