Revealed: Report of State Pathologist on the Tuam babies
THE remains of babies discovered in a disused septic tank in Tuam were found in a ‘haphazard arrangement’ with no indication they had been placed in coffins or laid out, according to an official report.
This appear to undermine some previous suggestions that the bodies had been wrapped in shrouds and carefully placed in a tomb-like structure, rather than being merely abandoned in the tank.
The details are revealed in a new book, authored by Irish Daily Mail journalist Alison O’Reilly, about the controversial Mother and Baby Home in Co. Galway.
The book, My Name Is Bridget, tells the story of former resident Bridget Dolan, who gave birth to two boys at the home who are both recorded as having died.
The report, by State Pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy, states how she visited the site of the former home on October 5, 2016, where an excavation was already taking place.
The home’s original septic tank, along with a more recent ‘brickbuilt structure’ consisting of two chambers, were discovered.
Prof Cassidy wrote: ‘I was informed that bones, believed to be infant remains, had been found out with the original septic tank during the excavation.’
She also described what she could see when she looked through a small hole into the chambers. The remains did not appear to have been carefully laid out, and had been deposited unceremoniously in the tank.
‘There was debris lining the floor of both chambers and recognisable infant bones scattered on top,’ she wrote. ‘The bones were in a haphazard arrangement which no indication of having been encoffined or laid out. There were identifiable skulls and long bones.’
The information in the report, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showed just how accurate the verbal accounts given by children from Tuam who had stumbled upon the mass grave in the 1970s had been.
In 1975, Frannie Hopkins and Barry Sweeney discovered skeletons, believed to be those of children, in a covered-over crypt while playing in a field. Prayers were said by a local priest and the bones were covered over again.
The Tuam scandal broke in 2014, when our sister newspaper, The Irish Mail on Sunday, revealed how 796 children are believed to have died while in the Mother and Baby Home.
The story told how local historian Catherine Corless, with the help of Ann Glennon in the General Registers for births and deaths, uncovered the names of the children who died over a 40year period. The scandal led to the setting-up of a State Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes.
The Tuam home was run by the Bon Secours Sisters from 1925 until it was closed in 1961.
In My Name Is Bridget, Dublin woman Anna Corrigan describes how in 2013, she discovered her late mother, Bridget Dolan, had given birth to two boys at the home – John Desmond Dolan in 1946, and William Joseph Dolan in 1950 – whom she had never told her about. John is understood to have been buried at the home.
Anna believes that William was illegally adopted through the Catholic Church to the US. She continues to search for him. Comment – Page 14 news@dailymail.ie
‘Recognisable infant bones’