Tuam mother and baby home dig discovers 10 more sets of infant remains
It takes the total infant remains found to 109
Ten more infant remains have been discovered during an excavation dig at the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam.
The operation, which started in July of last year, has discovered the remains of 109 infants at the site so far but it is believed that up to 796 infants could be buried at this location.
The most recent search period took place from July 16 to September 30 in an area which had been covered with gravel and used for vehicle access.
This area had no indications of burial grounds present.
The institution for unmarried mothers and their children ran from 1925 until 1961 but became known worldwide after the heroic investigations by Catherine Corless who discovered nearly 800 death certificates for children and babies who died there, but no burial records.
The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam will clean, dry and examine these remains.
The agency said: “The goal is reconstructing details of their lives and deaths and possibly ages and genders. These details may narrow the number of possible matching individuals and help to connect a skeletal individual with a name."
Sixty two people have given DNA samples to help identify the remains which have been found so far with more ground set to be examined in due course.
The state body charged with excavating the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam is set to spend nearly €1.4 million hiring specialist forensic personnel as it enters a new phase of the project.
The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) is seeking tenders from suitably qualified experts as it continues to unearth and analyse infant remains at the site.
It is planning to hire up to 10 geomatics assistants to capture geospatial data and build 3D digital models of recovered human remains, as well as up to 20 osteologically trained forensic lab technicians to clean, scan and sort commingled skeletal remains.
Tender documents refer to this as “phase three” of the complex forensic project.
The tender states that the recovery operation is “large in scale and complexity”, and will centre on the retrieval of commingled remains of infants and young children who died at the institution between 1925 and 1961.
The primary objective of the intervention is to afford dignity to the children who were “manifestly inappropriately interred” by recovering their remains, establishing their causes of death where possible, and either returning them to family members or arranging a respectful reinterment.
Prospective service providers have until October 16 to submit tenders, with contracts scheduled to run until at least June 30, 2027, subject to further ministerial extensions. The estimated value of the contract is €1.365 million.
ODAIT was formally established in 2023 under the Institutional Burials Act 2022 following public outrage over the burial of hundreds of babies on the grounds of the former institution run by the Bon Secours order.
Bon Secours Sisters, who ran the institution, have previously apologised and contributed funds towards the excavation costs.