Ireland Exumma Remains of almost 800 children in former home for single mothers

A team of 18 archaeologists, anthropologists and forensics began to excavate an old septic tank in the old home for single mothers St. Mary’s, managed by the sisters of good help in Tuam, Galway County, west of Ireland, now converted into housing urbanization.

Over the next two years, According to The Irish Time, An excavator without teeth will apply every pigeon of the 5,000 square meters of the plot of the plot in search of remains of the 796 children supposedly buried without burial between 1925 and 1960 two meters deep.

The objective is to find, analyze, identify and dignity the remains of children, many of them newborns. In order to identify them, they have collected DNA samples from more than 80 relatives who were invited this July 8 to a symbolic act to commemorate the start of the works.

The excavations – realized with the help of experts from Colombia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States – start 11 years after the local historian Catherine Corless discovered detailed evidence that proved the deaths in this residence and that there were only burial records of two of the almost 800 dead minors.

In 2014 he published the investigation that, three years later, led to the discovery of the common grave. In 2017, a preliminary excavation in the area found human remains, which confirmed the suspicions of mass burial in inhuman conditions.

“These babies are in a sewerage system. They have to get out of there,” said Corless on Monday, after the ground is close with a 2.4 -meter fence, the Irish Times reported.

“Alarming” Infant Mortality levels in these residences for single mothers

In January 2021, a National Research Commission revealed in a broad report The “alarming” infant mortality levels in these institutions for single mothers in Ireland.

The 3,000 -page document details what happened between 1922 and 1998 in 14 homes for single mothers and in a sample of four other counties, where abandoned children and sick or disabilities also lived with disabilities. In total, some 9,000 children died in these places, which represents 15% of the 57,000 minors who, together with their mothers, went through the 18 homes investigated during that period.

One of the most shocking episodes occurred in 1943 in the Irish town of Bessborough, where three out of four children died under the care of the sisters of the Sacred Hearts. According to the commission, more than 900 children died in that institution between 1922 and 1998, and until today a place of documented burial has not been identified.

Generalized indifference to children

Most deaths, according to documentation, occurred by respiratory diseases or gastroenteritis. The report attributed them to infamous health conditions, with limited access to hot and hot water, or lack of sanitation, together with overcrowding and the lack of health training.

The report stressed that the high mortality was known by local authorities, which did not act for years for the “generalized indifference” towards these children.

When the report was made public, the good help sisters offered an official apology and promised to contribute 12.97 million euros to the Compensation Fund for Government victims.

The then regional superior of the order, sister Eileen O’Connor, acknowledged that “the babies and children who died were buried disrespectfully and unacceptable” and that the congregation was part of a system that caused “loneliness, suffering and terrible pain.”

The then elected archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Farrell, said: “We cannot continue to flee from extremely painful truths about how, collectively and individually, we do not fulfill the duty to take care of vulnerable women and their children.”

The Ireland government also publicly requested forgiveness, since several of the investigated centers were public, although in practice they were managed by religious.

The then president of the Irish Episcopal Conference, Eamon Martin, requested that “anyone who can do it” so that babies have a dignified grave where their families can remember them.