THE excavation of the site of a former mother and baby home in Co. Galway, where 796 children are believed to be buried, has begun.
Works got underway at the location in Tuam on Monday, June 16, and will continue for a period of 24 months.
Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT), which is responsible for the excavation, said the families of those affected have been “informed of the timeline” and would be invited to view the site works in the weeks ahead.
“From the start of works, 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,” Mr MacSweeney said this week.
“The initial four weeks will involve setting up the site, including the installation of 2.4-metre hoarding around the perimeter,” he explained.
“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.”
Local historian Catherine Corless pictured in the grounds of the former Bon Secours mother-and-baby home in Tuam Co Galway, where pre-excavation work has begun this weekMr MacSweeney added: “This is a unique and incredibly complex excavation.
“The work is expected to take approximately 24 months to complete.
“As the site will be under forensic control at all times during the excavation we are putting in 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.”
Catherine Corless, who first discovered that a septic tank had been used as a mass grave at the site of the home, has welcomed the milestone in the fight for justice for the young people buried there.
“It's hard to put into words the relief that I feel right now, knowing that the skeletal remains of those 796 precious little souls will be finally set free from the horrific sewage system and the way that they were so callously disposed of,” she told The Irish Post.
It was in 2010 that Ms Corless, an amateur historian who lives just a few miles outside of Tuam, made her grim discovery while researching the history of the home, which was run by the Bon Secours sisters.
The campaigner found the death certificates of 796 children who had been born there, but no burial records.
She went on to discover that those bodies had been “discarded” in a disused sewage tank on the grounds of the site.
In 2014 her findings were revealed publicly, and the scandal hit headlines across the globe.
In the years that have since passed Mrs Corless has campaigned to secure justice for the victims and survivors.
“I will never understand how a religious congregation along with the Church could have committed such a heinous act at the time, and even to the present day, how their successors tried their utmost to keep that secret buried with the babies,” she said this week.
“It was knowing all this that drove me to keep up that fight over the space of 11 years,” she added.
“It was hard, but I will always be grateful to all media for keeping my efforts for justice alive with all the wonderful publicity, for that kept it in the face of our government who eventually were forced to do the right thing, albeit taking too many years to allow this excavation to happen.”
Over the years Ms Corless has supported the families of those children believed to be buried at the site.
She said they are “relieved” to finally have their remains exhumed.
“It is of course a very emotional time for the survivors, especially those who have family in that tank,” she said.
“But they too speak of great relief, for it brings them hope, and especially the possibility of retrieving the little remains and, through DNA testing, knowing that they are reuniting the baby and mother,” she added.
Ms Corless will now take a “step back” from the campaign as the excavation works get underway.
“Daniel McSweeney, director of the site, has done his utmost to reach out to the families of the babies, and to keep them informed here in Ireland and abroad,” she said.
“I am quite contented now to take a step back and leave it all to the experts in whom I have great faith, to bring final justice to the Tuam babies,” she added.
See More: Babies, Catherine Corless, Excavation, Galway, Tuam
