‘Many of Tuam babies may never be identified’
Expert says State pledges over babies’ remains may be impossible to achieve DNA will help ‘but it’s not a panacea’ Unless families come forward, task seems ‘highly unlikely’
ONE of the world’s leading experts in forensic anthropology and identification, has said many of the Tuam babies might never be identified and their new grave could become an ‘unknown soldier’ type memorial.
Professor Sue Black of the University of Lancaster said recovery of the infants’ remains could happen quickly once legislation is passed, but said very many of the Tuam babies might never be identified.
She said that the problem is exacerbated because, in many cases, researchers will only have access to the potential mothers’ DNA as many of the children’s fathers may be unknown. She also believes that fluctuating water levels over the years would have co-mingled the children’s DNA, potentially presenting further problems in identifying remains.
Last week, the Government announced the mass grave in Co. Galway is to be excavated in an effort to recover the remains of all of the children who died at the former religious-run institution, and a familial DNA database will be set up in an attempt to identify the children.
Prof. Black, who led the exhumation of mass graves and the identification of remains in Kosovo, and was also one of the first to assist with the identification of victims of the Indonesian tsunami in 2004, said that DNA would help in some cases but it was not a scientific panacea.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, she said that without families coming forward to provide DNA samples, very many of the Tuam babies will likely never be identified.
‘In the best-case scenario, you are relying on a parent of the baby, or their full brothers or sisters to come forward with DNA for comparison. The DNA from halfsiblings and cousins can of course be useful, but it is only ever going to confirm a partial match.
‘When you are comparing familial DNA, you are comparing DNA of the child with a partial match of their mother’s DNA, which is of course, only half of the picture. In many of these cases, we don’t know who the fathers are.
‘For anyone to say to families, “We will identify every single one of these children” would be irresponsible. You cannot give that guarantee to families. It is important that the message is honest and does not raise unachievable expectations. I would love to be wrong and that every single child is identified to a family and to a name, but in reality, that seems highly unlikely and close to impossible to achieve.’
On Tuesday, the Minister for Children Katherine Zappone made the historic announcement that the children’s burial site in Tuam will be excavated, and every effort will be made to recover all of the children’s bodies and identify them.
However, the Minister, and archaeologist Niamh McCullough, who carried out test excavations at the site in 2016 and 2017, acknowledged that it will be a complicated process and a familial DNA data base will have to be established.
Once recovered, the children will then be given a ‘dignified’ burial. However, Prof. Black doesn’t believe individual graves will necessarily be possible. She said: ‘When the excavation begins, there may be whole bodies but there may also be co-mingled remains.
‘That means, it could be close to impossible to reconstruct a complete skeleton with forensic certainty in order to have a single grave. If one child is in a container on their own, or the degree of comingling and post-mortem drift is minimal, then there is likely to be greater success..
‘But when they are co-mingled with hundreds of other remains, many of the same age, and [with] bones [moving] with rising and falling water tables, etc, then the complexity of the task is compounded. It is important to remember that in small children, each body contains more than 200 bones and some of them are so small they may only look like tiny stones.
‘It is extremely important that people are informed of the challenges from the outset, because it is neither fair nor just to raise unachievable expectations.’
Many of the women who had babies in the homes did not marry the father of their child, and went on to meet new partners and have children with them.
Therefore, according to Prof. Black, even DNA from half siblings searching for their loved ones, may struggle to achieve a match, because they do not have the same parents and because, over time and with less than favourable environmental conditions, the DNA can become fragmented.
She said: ‘A half-sibling is not a perfect DNA; the further you are
Remains likely mixed together
away from someone with exact DNA the more you get into a statement regarding the probability or likelihood that you are related, but you cannot have certainty.
‘If no one comes forward, then very simply, that child cannot be identified. Many people don’t even know they have a relative in that grave. These children were a secret. Equally, others may not want to come forward – it is a private matter. You cannot create an identity from the child alone – it is a matching process that requires the dead to be linked to the living.’
So far, about 20 families have come forward to state they believe that they have relatives in the grave at Tuam.
Anna Corrigan, who has two brothers who were in the home, has called for DNA preservation in order to allow family members to come forward for years to come.
Historian Catherine Corless, who uncovered the names of the 796 children who died in the home, said she would ‘love to see 796 graves and coffins for each child’ but accepts that could prove impossible. She said: ‘I do believe there are individual children in shoe boxes buried across the lands. They may be able to have an individual grave, but I do think it is going to prove difficult to bury them individually and I know it’s going to be hard to identify them all. I think we have to be realistic, but it would be lovely to name them all. I think it will be a very difficult task. The most important thing is to get them out of that tank, and to give them a proper burial.’
Prof. Black said the Tuam site presented particular difficulties. In general, forensic anthropology trying to make an identification via DNA will look for the petrous bone at the base of the skull; it has the greatest chance of surviving over a period of years because it is very dense. However, in very young babies who have died, the petrous bone can break from the rest of the skull. Indeed, because the bones in a child’s skull do not fuse until age eight or nine, in the remains of young children, the skull can dissassemble into its constituent parts entirely, making identification difficult.
‘Like all bones, children’s skulls decompose and factors that influence that include the type of soil, whether it has varying water levels, whether it is acidic or alkaline… and even [the fact that] the petrous part of the temporal bone can eventually dissolve.
‘If you are successful in recovering a DNA profile from the petrous part of the temporal bone, it may only tell you about the DNA contained within that single bone and not necessarily help you to reassign it to the rest of the body.
‘There is nothing more complicated than excavating a children’s mass grave. It requires extensive experience and it requires open and honest dialogue with the different communities to ensure that everyone understands every process and the likelihood of its success. We not only have to prepare for success but we also have to prepare for failure.’
On October 5, 2016, in a report by the State Pathologist, Professor Marie Cassidy, who examined the site of the Tuam grave, she said the children’s remains were found in a ‘haphazard arrangement’ with no evidence of shrouding or being encoffined.
Special Rapporteur Professor Geoffrey Shannon’s report weighed heavily on the Government’s decision to open the grave.
He has now called for an audit of the number of death certificates relative to the number of juvenile human remains found at the Tuam site.
Prof. Shannon said that there was a clear statutory duty to notify all deaths to the registrar of births and deaths and an audit would assist in determining the number of death certificates needed.
He has also pointed to the fact that there was a common law duty to bury the children decently and with dignity. His report shines a light on the rights of the relatives of the children who died there between 1925 and 1961.
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Prof. Shannon said: ‘The law at the time placed importance on dignity and that those who resided at the mother and baby home were entitled to respect. There is an obligation on the State to defend and vindicate the rights of the citizen
‘Must be honest with message’ ‘We have to be ready for failure’
as far as practicable.’
Prof. Shannon said there was a duty on the State to collect the remains of those interred in Tuam, and said it was very important that we, as a country, have regard to the distress of family members.
‘I welcome the Government’s response to the announcement that they will excavate the Tuam grave. I believe that the pathway suggested by the Minister is the correct way to proceed, commencing with examination with what is scientifically possible,’ he said
‘It is important that the Government take all reasonable steps to investigate the possibility of the retrieval of the remains of those interred in Tuam and vindicate the rights of the relatives.
‘A failure to provide relatives with credible information, shrouding the deaths and burials of their loved ones was maybe a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Government’s decision honours its obligations under international human rights law. Where inhumane or degrading treatment is alleged, the State has a duty to investigate any complaint made.’