It’s a painfully slow task but babies will get dignified burial
Expert team to excavate mass grave at workhouse
CATHERINE Corless has spoken of her relief that 796 babies dumped in a septic tank in Tuam will finally be given a “dignified burial”.
The historian who uncovered the scandal at the Galway mother and baby home run by the Bon Secours nuns said she expects the painstaking excavation process to start this summer.
Families have been told that the tiny remains of all the babies and toddlers illegally buried on the site will be given a proper burial.
DNA is now being collected from relatives of some of the children ahead of a complex dig by a team of forensic investigators led by project director Dan Mcsweeney. Ms Corless, 69, told the Irish Sunday
Mirror: “Although painfully slow, major preparations are ongoing to excavate the site and exhume the Tuam babies, along with DNA forensic testing of the little remains, and finally a dignified burial.
“I had not realised myself what a major task this is for Daniel Mcsweeney until he recently outlined what is ahead.”
Mr Mcsweeney, formerly of the International Committee of the Red Cross, was appointed director of intervention for the excavation project last summer.
FORENSIC
Announcing the appointment, Children’s Minister Roderic O’gorman described it as “one of the most complicated forensic excavations in the world taking place”.
Mr Mcsweeney outlined the challenges that lie ahead for the forensic team as they face into a laborious project which is likely to take years rather than months.
He said: “It may be difficult to get DNA but, that said, it is possible to put a little baby back together with the measurement of bones.
“It is something that must be done. It is the right thing to do.”
The bodies of hundreds of babies who died were wrapped in cloths and dumped in the chambers of a defunct sewerage system behind the former workhouse from 1940 to 1961 after the nuns ceased box burials.
The building has since been demolished and replaced by a housing development and playground – but the underground chambers remain.
Ms Corless said the remains are mixed and the cloths they were wrapped in are long gone. She added: “They are literally going to have to take every little bone they find and label it. And it will be an extraordinary effort by them.”
She added: “Although he [Daniel Mcsweeney] is well rehearsed in mass grave exhumations, the Tuam site needs careful planning, mainly because of its close proximity to the housing estate.
“And the fact that the babies’ remains are in very deep chambers, nine feet deep, which means the dig must be deeper to get in under those.
“Also consider a huge tank topped with rubble and clay – it’s not known yet what is under that, perhaps multiple skeletal remains.
“Engineers have examined the whole site, which incorporates the very large playground beside the tank, and also the grassy margin which surrounds it. “They will be reporting back to Daniel on the best safety methods, and of course the cost.” Mr Mcsweeney has given an undertaking to families that all unidentified remains will be buried in a specially chosen grave rather than left in storage. He has contacted all three groups of survivors who have family in the sewage tanks and has offered to meet them individually to keep them briefed on the project. Ms Corless said: “At least those little babies got a box burial before the
They will have to take every little bone they find and label it
sewage tank became defunct, up to around 1938 or 1939.
“Supports will have to be put in place around the tank and chambers, for fear of ground collapsing which would destroy vital evidence.
“Forensic expert Oran Finnegan from Carlingford is working side by side with Daniel, and they are in the process of hiring more staff and an archaeologist team.”
Mr Finnegan, a forensic manager with the International Red Cross, outlined how juvenile skeletons have far more than the 206 bones of an average adult skeleton and dealing with co-mingled remains will be “highly complex”.
The long-awaited excavation represents a huge logistical challenge with the Office of Public Works tasked with helping source a large depot to house the remains as they are uncovered.
Ms Corless revealed: “The Galway Board of Works are presently decided between two buildings, where a laboratory team will try to assemble the remains and take DNA samples.”
It is more than a decade since the mum-of-four uncovered the Tuam scandal in the face of some local opposition and a lack of cooperation from
church authorities.
She turned down an invitation to a reception for Pope Francis’s visit to Ireland in 2018, opting instead to attend a vigil at the Tuam site that was held at the same time as the Papal mass, stating she was “taking a stand with the babies”.
Her campaign is now being considered for a movie with Taken star Liam Neeson rumoured to be involved in the production.
Ms Corless, who won several awards for her tireless work, has won international acclaim for her tenacity and humility.
As her campaign’s end goal draws nearer she told us: “I can see that come the date of the dig, everything and everybody will be in place and will be well rehearsed in the
job in hand.
“That is the way Daniel works, and I agree, it is the only way this can be successfully achieved. This is really a huge undertaking, the first of its like in Ireland.”
Everybody will be in place and will be well rehearsed in the job