Exhumation continues as disgraced ‘amateur historian’ proven right about mass grave of 800 babies under home

Excavation work is currently happening at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home site in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. This confirms long-standing suspicions about a mass grave holding the remains of almost 800 babies and young children. This major effort comes after years of careful research by local historian Catherine Corless, whose early discoveries were met with doubt and even outright rejection by some.

Corless, who some have called an “amateur historian,” carefully studied death certificates and church records related to the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home. This was a place where unmarried mothers were sent, and it operated from 1925 to 1961. Her detailed research, as found by People, published in May 2014, showed that 796 children had died there during those years.

Most importantly, she found that only two of these children had official burial records. This led her to ask a disturbing question – were hundreds of babies were buried in unmarked graves on the property? Unfortunately, she was right.

Hundreds of baby corpses found under home

The records Corless examined listed the most common causes of death as respiratory infections and stomach illnesses, along with other conditions like premature birth, seizures, whooping cough, tuberculosis, meningitis, and diphtheria. Malnutrition was mentioned in a few cases, but the main problem Corless identified was the lack of proper records, burials, or recognition of these children’s bodies.

At first, Corless’s findings were met with strong pushback from different groups, including the Catholic Church, politicians, and some members of the public. She said she was treated like an outcast, with some people avoiding or confronting her or her family in public. They claimed her work was “making Tuam look bad” and argued that the remains should not be disturbed.

Some media reports at the time also questioned the accuracy of her numbers and downplayed her thorough research, calling her just an “amateur historian.” Despite this, Corless, who paid for her research herself, kept going because she felt a deep moral duty to the children she believed were buried without dignity.

She told The Irish Times, “All those lovely little children and babies, that’s the one thing that drove me. That’s all that was in my mind, these babies in a sewage system, they have to come out.” 

Corless’s continued efforts and increasing public attention eventually led to a government-ordered test excavation in 2017. This important investigation confirmed her suspicions, showing that children’s remains had indeed been buried on the property in what used to be a septic tank. Later forensic tests showed that these remains belonged to babies and young children, ranging from about 35 weeks in the womb up to three years old.

This is a vindication at levels far beyond Johnny Depp’s victory and Elemental’s box office win.

The Bon Secours home was one of many such places in Ireland where unmarried pregnant women were sent to have their babies in secret. These women were often forced to work without pay, and many of their children died from neglect, disease, or malnutrition. Some children who survived were given up for adoption, sometimes illegally. According to Fox, around 9,000 children died in 18 different mother-and-baby homes across Ireland, with the main causes of death being respiratory infections and stomach illnesses.