The story of Tuam has left a massive stain on Ireland’s conscience for over a decade after it was revealed that nearly 800 children were buried in the grounds of an infamous mother and baby home.
The dark past of the unassuming town in County Galway was brought back into focus this week after officials began to dig for their remains.
Tucked away in northwestern Ireland, the small leafy town was home to Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, a cruel institution for orphans and unmarried women who were subjected to some of the most depraved living conditions imaginable.
The long awaited excavation is part of a reckoning in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country with a history of abuse within church-run institutions.
The monstrous conditions suffered at the Irish mother and baby home were revealed in a damning 1947 report that painted a grim and harrowing picture of the home years after campaigners first aired their horrifying revelations.
The document, which was seen by the Sunday Independent, tells of how children suffered from malnutrition so severe that some had pot-bellies.
Children were described to have wizened limbs while others were said to be ‘mentally defective’.
A young resident was described as a ‘miserable, emaciated child with a voracious appetite and no control over bodily functions.’
One child was reported to have abscesses on their hips and boils on their body.
he site of the discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of 796 children of St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home on June 7, 2014 in Tuam, Co. Galway, Ireland
The monstrous conditions suffered at the Irish mother and baby home were revealed in a damning 1947 report. Picture shows nuns and children at the Bessborough Mother and Baby home in Cork, Ireland
The document tells of how children suffered from malnutrition so severe that some were pot-bellied
‘Emaciated, with flesh hanging loosely on limbs’, was the description used for another child.
At the time the report was conducted, 271 children and 61 mother were said to have been living at the crowded home
This exceeded the ‘desirable level’ of 243 residents, according to the inspector.
Death rates were staggeringly high in the institution that mainly housed women who fell pregnant outside marriage.
In 1943 alone, 34 per cent of children died in the home, according to the report.
More than one-in-four (27 per cent) of children lost their lives while living in the home in 1946.
‘The death rate amongst infants is high… The death rate had appeared to be on the decrease but has now begun to rise again’, the report noted, adding that: ‘It is time to enquire into the possible cause before the death rate mounts higher.’
Death rates were staggeringly high in the institution
In 1943 alone, 34 per cent of children died in the home
Death records obtained by local historian Catherine Corless suggest that children suffered extreme levels of neglect
A general view of the former site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby home and the memorial garden
Despite the shocking findings, the report found that the care given to infants was ‘good’ and said that the ‘Sisters are careful and attentive’.
It also highlighted that ‘diets are excellent’, suggesting that ‘it is not here that we must look for cause if the death rate.’
The report suggested that infections from outside could have contributed to the shockingly high death rates and pointed out that there was no testing for venereal diseases.
But death records obtained by local historian Catherine Corless suggest that children suffered extreme levels of neglect.
In one instance, 27 children died as a result of the same measles outbreak.
Ms Corless prompted investigations into the facility after she discovered in her research death certificates for 796 children at the home between 1925 and 1961, but no burial records.
Many of the children who died at the institution are believed to have been dumped into a former sewage tank known as ‘The Pit’, according to Ms Corless.
Ms Corless told Sky News she was ‘feeling very relieved’ as excavation work began at the site on Monday.
Work begins on the excavation of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home site
A memorial left at the site of the former Mother and Baby institution in Tuam, Co Galway, at the start of pre-excavation works, on June 16, 2025
‘It’s been a long, long journey,’ she told the outlet. ‘Not knowing what’s going to happen, if it’s just going to fall apart or if it’s really going to happen.’
A report in 2017 revealed that a mass grave containing the remains of children had been uncovered in a disused sewer during preliminary excavations.
The ages of the dead ranged from 35 foetal weeks to three years old.
The story has sparked outrage and horror since coming to international attention in 2014, when the Irish Mail on Sunday first reported on the claims.
The work at the burial site, which is being undertaken by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT), will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible, and re-interment of the remains at the site.
Its objective is to ‘recover and forensically analyse, and to memorialise and bury with respect and dignity, human remains recovered from the site’.
The pre-excavation work includes the installation of a 2.4-metre hoarding around the perimeter.
The site will now be subject to security monitoring on a 24-hour basis to ensure the forensic integrity of the site during the excavation.
Family members and survivors of the institution will have an opportunity to view the perimeter to see the works being carried out in the coming weeks.
The full excavation is anticipated to last two years.
Ahead of the preparatory work, Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the ODAIT, described the planned excavation as ‘unique and incredibly complex’.
One of Mr MacSweeney’s main responsibilities will be to ensure any remains that are uncovered are re-interred in a respectful and appropriate way.
In 2021, Irish premier Micheal Martin delivered an apology on behalf of the state for the treatment of women and children who were housed in mother and baby homes across Ireland.
The St Mary’s home for unmarried mothers and their children was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic nuns, until it closed in 1961.
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.
Work begins on the excavation of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home site on June 16, 2025
The full excavation is anticipated to last two years
Historian Catherine Corless poses on the site of the former St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, in Tuam, on May 20, 2025
A message left at the site of the former St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Ireland
Ms Corless completed her efforts to collate the death certificates of 798 children who died at the home in September 2013. In all but two cases, she was unable to trace their burial records.
The Connacht Tribune interviewed Ms Corless about her campaign to memorialise the children the following February, and the story gained international attention that May, when the Irish Mail on Sunday reported on fears the children had been buried in a ‘mass grave’ at the home.
The Irish government ordered a nationwide commission of investigation into mother and baby homes a month later, coming together in January 2015 to look back on practices.
Test excavations at the site of the home in Tuam only began in October 2016, uncovering ‘significant quantities of human remains’ in a report published in March 2017.
It revealed that children at the home suffered malnutrition and neglect, which caused the deaths of many, while others died of measles, convulsions, TB, gastroenteritis and pneumonia.
The commission said the remains were found in a large underground ‘structure’, divided into 20 chambers. It said the structure ‘appears to be related’ to the treatment or storage of sewage or waste water.
The commission later said the remains were ‘not in a sewage tank, but in a second structure…built within the decommissioned large sewage tank’.
Ireland’s Minister for Children ordered a full forensic excavation of the site in 2018.
