Hundreds attend vigil at babies’ burial site
HUNDREDS of people at a vigil in Tuam called for the remains of “hundreds of babies” to be exhumed from a site in Co Galway.
Around 500 people gathered for the silent vigil, which took place at the same time as the Papal Mass in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
People walked from Tuam’s town hall to the former site of the mother and baby home, stopping at poignant spots along the way, including the local graveyard.
They gathered at the site, which was managed by the Sisters of the Bon Secours between 1925 and 1961 and where remains of infant bones have been found.
Annette McKay, whose sister vanished from the mother and baby home, said that the children deserved to have a “proper burial”.
Her mother Maggie O’Connor, from Galway, was sent to the home when she was 17. She was pregnant after being raped.
Ms McKay (64) knew nothing of her oldest sister, Mary Margaret O’Connor, for years.
The child is reported to have died from natural causes in the mother and baby home in 1943.
Ms McKay said: “The Pope and the rest of them should have come here and listened to what the Catholic Church did to 796 children.”
In 2013, local historian Catherine Corless discovered official records, showing that around 800 children had died at the home in Tuam.
In March, a commission of investigation announced that it had found “a significant number of human remains” at the site.
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone is expected to make a recommendation on the future of the burial site in Tuam in early autumn.