Mass septic tank grave 'containing the skeletons of 800 babies' at site of Irish home for unmarried mothers
Alison O'reilly
- Hundreds of babies and toddlers believed to be buried in Tuam, Co Galway
- The site lies next to a former home for single mothers and their children
- The children's home was run by Bon Secours nuns between 1925 and 1961
- Children were malnourished and neglected, which caused many of deaths
- They also died of TB, pneumonia, measles, convulsions and gastroenteritis
- Relative of one missing child has filed complaint with local police, the gardai
The bodies of nearly 800 babies are believed to have been interred in a concrete tank beside a former home for unmarried mothers.
The dead babies are thought to have been secretly buried beside a home for single mothers and their children in County Galway, Ireland, over a period of 36 years.
It is suspected that 796 children were interred on unconsecrated ground without headstones or coffins next to the home run by the Bon Secours nuns in Tuam between 1925 and 1961.
Newly unearthed reports show that they suffered malnutrition and neglect, which caused the deaths of many, while others died of measles, convulsions, TB, gastroenteritis and pneumonia.
The bodies of 796 babies and children were found next to the former children's home at Tuam, Co. Galway
The babies were usually buried in a plain shroud without a coffin in a plot that had housed a water tank attached to the workhouse that preceded the mother and child home.
No memorial was erected to the dead children and the grave was left unmarked.
The site is now surrounded by a housing estate. But a missing persons' report just filed to Irish police, gardai, means that the burial site may now be excavated.