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Historian Catherine Corless places a "baby's coffin" at a temporary shrine to the babies who died in the Tuam mother and baby home. Brian Farrell via RollingNews.ie
tuam babies
'Exceptionally important decision': Full forensic excavation of Tuam mother and baby home to take place
The Government has been offered €2.5 million by the Bon Secours Sisters, who ran the home, towards the excavation.
CHILDREN’S MINISTER KATHERINE Zappone has confirmed that there will be a full forensic examination of the site of the mother and baby home in Tuam, Galway.
At a press conference today, Zappone said that a phased approach will be adopted which includes a forensic excavation and recovery of juvenile remains as well as the use of technology to locate potential burials.
“Our approach is reasonable and it is rooted in profound empathy,” the minister said today.
On-site testing will be used at Tuam to identify possible burials and arrangements will be made for respectful reburials and memorialisation, the minister said.
A process of individualisation and identification of infant remains will be undertaken – where possible.
"Lost children - lost sisters and lost brothers", Minister Zappone says that what happened at Tuam was part of a wider pattern.
Last year, a report identified five possible options for how the Tuam site should be handled.
In March 2017, the Commission into mother and baby homes confirmed that a “significant” number of human remains were discovered at the site of the former church-run home for unwed mothers. Scientific analysis put the age of death between 35 foetal weeks and two to three years.
Experts have previously said that the excavation of the site will be extremely complex, and that identification of the remains would be difficult, primarily because they would have “comingled”.
The work of Catherine Corless, an amateur historian, led to the discovery. In October, Corless was awarded the Bar of Ireland’s Human Rights Award for her work regarding the Tuam site.
Speaking to RTÉ News this afternoon, Corless said she was “very, very relieved” at today’s decision and “very happy for the survivors”.
Corless welcomed the fact that forensic and DNA testing will be used to identify remains and determine possible causes of death.
It’s everything that we had been campaigning for.
In a statement this afternoon, the Tuam Babies Family Group welcomed today’s decision to fully excavate the site.
This is an exceptionally important decision and will pave the way for all the other mother and baby homes, and the lost children of Ireland.
We hope this decision will bring peace to the families of these children.
‘Voluntary contribution’
The cost of the forensic investigation at the Tuam site is estimated at between €6 million and €13 million.
The Bon Secours Sisters, who ran the mother and baby home, have offered the Government a €2.5 million voluntary contribution towards the investigation. This is not a settlement and “not an indemnity”, Minister Zappone said today.
Due to the “unprecedented” nature of the site, “bespoke legislation” is required before proceeding with excavation.
A cross-departmental group, tasked with drafting legislation, will meet within the next fortnight, the minister said.
The impact on individuals and families has been devastating. We owe it to the strenghth and the passion and the courage of those who’ve spoken up, those who broke the silence, to act now.
With reporting by Cónal Thomas
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@Dermot Lane: Yes, no doubt one of the ponces will want to be there to “bless” the site.
Should be a restraining order within a 2 mile radius of them getting anywhere near the site.
@Trevor Hayden: Joe Taxpayer farmed child care out to these abusers because it was cheap and they frankly couldn’t care less – so yeah we facilitated this massacre. Births and deaths are OUR responsibility not the churches.
@Austin Rock: Who carried out the massacres Austin?
The church.
Who imposed this supposed “shame” of having a child out of wedlock?
The church.
I understand that some women ended up here due to poverty but to be blatantly lied to about what happened to their children by a cult that expect children to go to confession proves what a two faced backwards organisation it really is.
@Alan Beirne: I’m not sure they’d be the correct body, however I do believe there should be some rules laid down first. It has to be asked what are the aims of this, is it to be done with the intention of perhaps bringing about criminal charges, to possibly unite the living with the remains of the deceased. Is it neither of these things and simply to bring the one of the darkest aspects of our past into the light and to finally reveal what happened here. I dislike the word, but to help bring closure to people. If this helps the living, so be it.
As to the cost, it must be remembered the Church didn’t do this alone, they did so with the blessing and full knowledge of the State, we’re culpable too. We must share the burden.
@Arch Angel: Ah no, sorry now. I, along with the vast majority of the population, had nothing to do with this. Don’t try to dilute or deflect the blame from those responsible.
@Pseud O’Nym: Neither did I. However if we’re to be accurate about this then, in the past, both the church and State played a role. The State had a duty of care to the children within it’s jurisdiction, it either placed them directly or allowed them to be placed into the care of the Church where appalling things happened.
We can’t simply abdicate all responsibility and say it’s all the fault of the Church. Yes, they may have carried out the abuse, but who gave them free reign, turned a blind eye, never investigated when there was surely plenty of cause to do so. Who allowed young women, and subsequently their children, to be placed into these homes?
Bear in mind these are historical crimes, I don’t know if there may be anyone responsible alive today but the institutions still exist, the Church and State.
@Alan Beirne: I know were you are coming from but surely not the UNHCR? As long as its not the UNHCR which which has Saudi Arabia as a senior council member and head of a vital sub committee – in which Ireland voted for them. We are kinda unfit to oversee anything.
@Pseud O’Nym: To be fair now both institutions shared a degree of responsibility, then and now. The State were happy for the Church to do their work, turned a blind eye and didn’t ask any questions about what was obvious institutional abuse, and much, much worse. Yet you want to hold one responsible but not the other.
No. I don’t doubt the State will pick up a bill for this, but it should be shared, at least 50/50 with the Church, although I can’t see that happening. Their track record in paying restitutions leaves a lot to be desired.
My heart is broken for all the young mothers & babies who were victims of church & State. How anyone could be subjected to such cruelty is incomprehensible. I can’t help but think family & relatives should not be let away with this either, all are complicit in this horrific crime…
@Dermot Lane: The monument should be in a prominent position in Tuam, but ones should also be erected in all of our major towns and cities. A reminder to future generations not to get sucked into the immoral Catholic Church.
@PaulineSmith: We should take down that monstrosity that is the Popes Cross in the Phoenix Park and erect a monument to all the victims of the church in Ireland
@Jane: The relatives the shipped of their pregnant daughters and sisters so they could “save” face and then claim “we had no idea what was happening” if they were any kind of decent relatives they’d never have handed over these woman and their kids to this sick murderous hags
@Michael butler: The tide is turning against the IT and RTE campaign to damage the Catholic Church. On RTE radio this morning “Catherine Corless rebuked the poisonous language of some disgusting woman and had to expose her nasty introduction with a correction to her loaded rant and clarify as follows “there were burials in a sewage area beside the Tuam home where records show that 796 babies died ” Catherine had been introduced by this someone as the woman who discovered 800 babies DUMPED in a SEEPTIC TANK in Tuam. 8:25am 23/8/2018 RTE Radio One. No mention that some of these babies were brought to the home because they needed care, that some of the number were buried in the cemetery across the road and more were taken by relatives to family graves elsewhere.
@MaxDemons: Infant mortality was high back then and even higher in institutions and each death was a tragedy. Causing extra hurt by using these tragedies by venting bitterness is sick.
@Tom Molloy: I agree Tom, all these deaths were tragedies. Tragedies that could have been avoided, however the insidious vile religion of this country condemned these women from the pulpit. Bitterness, I think not.
@MaxDemons: “Could have been avoided” ? Infant mortality was common in spite of efforts to prevent it inside and outside institutions and also in private nursing homes and amongst home births.
@Tom Molloy: Why is it the infant mortality in church run institutions was way higher? Because as the nuns/church seen them they were unmarried fallen woman who committed the atrocious sin of having a baby out of wedlock????? therefore that baby’s couldn’t be christened and didn’t deserve medical help care or empathy and didn’t deserve a place in God’s heaven? Care to answer that ?
@Jill Murphy: don’t mind Tom, he’s just hoping that someday he can come on here and say “see, I told you it was less than 800!” and “,typical liberal media picking on the church”
@Tom Molloy: They have the death certificates, you know the official ones from the state.
There may be a discrepancy between the actually number of bodies found and the number reported as dead but sold by the nuns to rich yanks.
Either way there will be NO good headlines for the Bons Secours sister and another investigation will be required to ascertain the level of illegal adoptions / child trafficking.
@Tom Molloy: What speculation are u referring to? I’d say there’s more than reported, also the youngest 35weeks 35 weeks and those sadistic bast23ds dumped their little bodies into a septic tank? How do u defend that shower Tom?
Katherine Zappone seen actually earning her wage for once!
Keep on her about adoptees limited and unequal civil or human rights and paultry constitutional and statutory rights, due to being actively denied our own information, birth certs, identities and potential family relationships for no necessary reason. In my case purely and solely because my birth mother was unwed when I was born.
!?!
Tuam needs to be excavated with respect and expertise, as does Sean Ross and Bessborough, among others.
About time! The person who should be commended here is Catherine Coreless. Zappone knows there is an election coming up, otherwise she would be still making excuses. Don’t be conned! FG had to be dragged kicking and screaming into this. RIP to those children. It still upsets me to know how they suffered.
@blackcoffee: I think Catherine Zappone deserves some kudos in this matter; I also think her speech to the pope in Italian showed bravery and guts. catherine Corless is an incredibly diligent brave lady.
@Dermot Lane: she is Fine Gael through and through! She was elected to the Senate by Enda Kenny. She votes every time with FG. ‘ independent ‘ she ain’t! Don’t be fooled!
@Seamus G: offered a roof over their heads when others wouldn’t? Why did they do that, to work them like slaves,steal their kids and sell them on to rich “catholic” American families , physical and psychological torture and treat them like food scraps when they died they dump them because they couldn’t make a profit from them.
Oh Yeh, great example of “charity” there giving them a roof over their head
Catherine Corless is looking after our dead, disregarded children from a time in Ireland from not so long ago. She deserves the Nobel Prize for her endeavours, dedication, selfless hard work and persistence as she endeavours to give the neglected, abandoned babies and mothers, recognition, existence and closure to a part of our unsavoury past.
As Catherine Corless said ‘ it’s a huge day for survivors , thankful that this day had come ‘
An Irishwoman we can be so proud of after all her work !!
I have to say the babies families, especially the father’s cannot walk away from this scandal either
Most of these babies could have been raised in their own homes, if the respective families had supported the mothers
@Peter Byrne: The church created & maintained the climate of fear & shame that made certain those women were rejected by their families. This in turn provided a supply of slave labour for the laundries & a supply of babies to export for cash.
@Chemical Brothers: That is the talk of a lunatic. The problem of homeless unmarried mothers existed long before. The first Magdalen home in Dublin was established in 1767 for Protestant girls.
See the work of artists – eg RIchard Redgrave ‘The Outcast’ – 1851.
@Peter Byrne: you don’t seem to have any idea of what happened at all. If a young girl got pregnant then the church demanded that she was handed over to do penance. Most families had no choice in what happened unless they stood up to the church and that would have seen them ostracised from society. I would be interested in the DNA of the remains to see how many had a common father, maybe one dressed in black.
Prior to mother and baby homes, the newborn infants were left on the street to be taken to the Foundling hospital. Cork Foundling hospital had an infant mortality rate for infants of 100% because the only way of feeding an infant was ‘wet-nursing’ and that cost mpney
,
The first Magdalen home was established for Protestant girls in 1767 – so they gave birth and nursed their babies and went out with a chance of a fresh start,
Starting from there – get some knowledge and talk sense.
@Peter Byrne:
Sorry – Peter. Such solutions did not exist. In post-famine Ireland the economic imperative enforced chastity not the church. They had seen people die of hunger and passed them by, because they had nothing to give.
The days of young marriages and land sub-division were over. Couples were carefully matched by their parents and a marriage agreement setting out the economics of the deal was a legal document.
Only one son could inherit and marry one daughter from another farm.
For the other sons and daughters a religious vocation of poverty, chastity and obedience was a tough option, but admired by society.
The mission of the church was to raise Ireland up from poverty. They did it by making a life of abstinence tolerable and by providing education, health care and a degree of social security which took pregnant girls of the streets. The Ireland of to-day would not have been possible without their work.
The Bon Secour nuns, the few that are left have seen their life’s work denigrated and not the slightest attempt to appreciate what they sacrificed and achieved.
This page is full of sneers and slogans and a lack of knowledge of the conditions that created mother & baby homes
@Harry Foley:t. The Bons Secours worked for free and spent their lives in these institutions – is’nt that enough? This public ranting is Orwellian.
The people who were never there and did nothing denouncing those who were there and did what they could, with very little.
The institution was owned and funded by the Co Council. Why does’nt our ‘historian’ come up with the names of the Co Managers and Councillors during that era
The nuns came because they were asked to provide free labour and now they are supposed to be the slave drivers
2300 kids get sexually abused each year in Ireland 1/4 of those are carried out by other minors under the age of 18. The children’s minister despite promising has put zero funds into trying to work with these children.
Yet has no problem spending millions on excavating remains from 50 to 80 years ago
This to me is pandering to populism and has nothing at all to do with the well being of the marginalised children of today or yesterday . The more we move on the more we remain the same
What a waste of money!! It’s effectively a graveyard for God’s sake and that was already known (hence the Marian shrine there). The death rates in that home were in line with childhood death rates in other homes in Ireland and throughout Europe. People find it hard to believe today, but prior to 1960 childhood deaths were very common and even more common in homes such as this. That is one of the major reasons why they were shut down. With young children in close proximity to one another diseases and infections spread rapidly. The difference between urban and rural areas was also evident for the same physical proximity reasons. This is a monumental waste of public money. Instead the dead children should be honored by turning it into a proper graveyard (which the council should have done years ago).
@Hop Lite: reading the deaths and the variations in the numbers of deaths in different year it becomes apparent that in the years in which the rate was particularly high, it corresponded to an outbreak of measles, etc.
@emer caffrey: read the report it was NOT a slurry pit. Would the enormous amount of money this will take be better spent on children that are in need todsy. Nothing can help these children now and they should left in peace
@Dermot Lane: no the commission found a chamber that they never knew was that there
They have not committed to state categorically as being septic tanks
@Quentin Moriarty: “. In March 2017 the Commission into mother and baby homes confirmed that a “significant” number of human remains were discovered at the site of the former church-run home for unwed mothers. Scientific analysis put the age of death between 35 foetal weeks and two to three years. “
@Karen Wellington: read the report from March 3rd that you posted. No clear evidence of a correlation between septic tank and buried remains
No one doubts that there are remains there
Catherine Corless herself states that she never used the words “dumped ” nor did she ever claim that over 700 bodies are in a septic tank .
It was the media who ran with this idea of septic tanks and remains
@Quentin Moriarty: “a number of sub surface anomalies that were considered worthy of further investigation. These were further investigated by a test excavation in November/December 2016 and in January/February 2017. Test trenches were dug revealing two large structures. One structure appears to be a large sewage containment system or septic tank that had been decommissioned and filled with rubble and debris and then covered with top soil. The second structure is a long structure which is divided into 20 chambers. The Commission has not yet determined what the purpose of this structure was but it appears to be related to the treatment/containment of sewage and/or waste water. The Commission has also not yet determined if it was ever used for this purpose.”
@Quentin Moriarty: “In this second structure, significant quantities of human remains have been discovered in at least 17 of the 20 underground chambers which were examined.”
@Quentin Moriarty: an unused septic tank is still a septic tank, how would you suggest it be referred to? Maybe you could focus less on general pedantry and more on the atrocities committed.
@Karen Wellington: and said link has not stated anywhere that bones were found in a or the septic tank on the site
The whole site is not a septic tank
There is a burial chamber on that site
Important to also look at the facts
We shall wait until full excavation has happened and then comment
@Quentin Moriarty: “The second structure is a long structure which is divided into 20 chambers. The Commission has not yet determined what the purpose of this structure was but it appears to be related to the treatment/containment of sewage and/or waste water. The Commission has also not yet determined if it was ever used for this purpose.”
- it appears to be related to the treatment/containment of sewage and/or waste water.
- A septic tank is an underground chamber made of concrete, fiberglass or plastic, through which domestic wastewater (sewage) flows for basic treatment.
“In this second structure, significant quantities of human remains have been discovered in at least 17 of the 20 underground chambers which were examined.”
@Quentin Moriarty:
When the workhouse was built on the edge of town it was not connected to a sewer. The treatment system was a septic tank and percolation area. The tank acts as a trap for gross solids. These sink are broken down by anaerobic bacteria into methane gas and inert sludge. The sludge has to be cleaned out manually once a year.
Roll on time and the workhouse in connected to the town sewer.
The redundant tanks may have been cleaned out and used as a tomb. Also likely, the burials were in the ground and previous burial were exhumed during grave digging. These remains were replaced on the coffin and the grave filled in. This was common practice due to the shortage of burial spaces. Old graveyard in ireland has bones and skulls visible on the surface until the better maintenance of grave yards by local committtes for annual Mass. It’s possible that the chambers were used for disposal of exposed bones when that area was cleaned up and a shrine placed there.
The irreverent disposal of remains ‘in a septic tank’ may be a malicious invention. There is a motive for a person to look for an aspect to cause reputational damage to the institution and the people who operated it.
The workhouse was funded by the British administration until 1921, when it devolved to the Co Council. They asked the nuns to run it – and paid them. The annual budget line by line would be interesting. Burial expenses for deceased children would not have been a high priority – because there were other calls on scarce resources – as there are now.
Making Tuam workhouse a cause celebre has all to do with the Magdalen campaign, which has all to do with establishing a class of victims who want our money,
The present population is not obliged to spend large amounts of money in a campaign to scapegoat the very people who were actually doing something to deal with the problems of their time and have no voice whatever because they are all dead.
@June Rose-Sommer: Poor little mites – how touching – pity you weren’t around when they needed you.
Why don’t you make up for it by doing voluntary work with a charity. You could make a fine nun.
What are we going to pay for next – digging up the back lot of every workhouse? This is like moving statues mass hysteria .
Miss Marple goes to the records office and finds that 20 babies per year died in the mother & baby home. To juice up this bit of non-news – the burials are in a septic tank. Flushed down the toilet no doubt.
Liberal Ireland rejoices – a famous victory over the enemy which never strikes back. It’s too pathetic for words.
A historian – LOL.
For a quick education in social conditions which created workhouse , mother and baby homes. orphanages, adoption, start with Jeremy Paxman – The Victorians.
Before vaccinations and antibiotics, childhood mortality was huge from epidemics of scarlet fever, typhoid diphtheria, whooping cough, TB etc etc 20% dead before the age of 5 was normal.
Give some credit to the religious orders who were the only providers of any care to women and children who would have died in a ditch otherwise
Now that we are free of their depredations – we don’t seem to be doing all that well in those areas.
The Vatican should foot the entire bill for the costs involved. Not right for the taxpayer to be footing a chunk of it, almost feels like the state are transferring their complicity onto us taxpayers
@Tommie:
Tommie – if I were the Pope I’d send a bill to Ireland for 150 years of free labour in education and health care. This page is like something from Orwell’s 1984. He envisaged a department of government for re-writing history to accord with the group-think of the day.
So fifteen years later the ones responsible are paying (off) for the @investigation@
What a crock of shite!
Watch the cover up begin
Any other country in the WORLD when a mass grave is discovered there would be an IMMEDIATE investigation
there are no words left for this savagery….the head of the nuns order should be on her knees apologizing for what happened in tuam and the other concentration camps….hang your heads in shame….
sell all the convents and prime lands…
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Link different devices 50 partners can use this feature
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In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 84 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 64 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
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