How details of homes’ horror spread
1925 – 1961
The Bon Secours Sisters run a mother and baby home in Tuam, Co. Galway.
1975
Two local boys Frannie Hopkins and Barry Sweeney discover a number of small skulls hidden under a slate. A priest blesses the site and it is assumed it is a Famine grave.
2012
Local historian Catherine Corless publishes a paper in the Journal of the Old Tuam Society on her research. She has sought death certificates for the children, establishing that just one child was buried in a local graveyard – leaving 796 unaccounted for.
2013
Catherine Corless makes a plea for funds to build a memorial in the Connacht Tribune and the Tuam Herald.
May 25, 2014
The Irish Mail on Sunday publishes Mrs Corless’s research on the front page. There is huge online reaction.
May 26
Irish-American website irishcentral.com reports on the findings. This is followed by Irish online news outlet The Journal on May 27.
May 28
RTÉ’s Liveline programme covers the story. There is outrage as the story spreads.
May 31
Our sister paper the Irish Daily Mail reveals thousands of infants in homes died from starvation and malnutrition.
June 2
We reveal that there are other secret burial sites in former homes around the country, including Loughrea in Co. Galway.
June 3
The Washington Post carries the story under the headline: ‘Bodies of 800 babies, longdead, found in septic tank at former Irish home for unwed mothers’. A frenzy of international attention follows.
June 4
Tuam-based Independent TD Colm Keaveney is asked to leave the Dáil having tried to raise the issue officially. Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald requests all Garda information on the Tuam home. The Garda initially dismissed the need for an investigation.
June 6
THE Irish Daily Mail reveals vaccines were tested on more than 2,000 children in religious-run homes. The MoS commissions a radar examination at the site in Tuam.
Today
We reveal further harrowing details of what happened in Tuam. A service is being held at the Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork, where other mass burials are suspected to have taken place.