796 dead babies expected to be found hidden in septic tank at unwed mothers’ home run by nuns
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Dig for remains of 800 infants at former ‘mother and baby home’ in Ireland begins
A long-awaited forensic excavation at a former ‘mother and baby home’, where the remains of almost 800 babies and children are believed to be buried, will start today. Local historian Catherine Corless uncovered the deaths of 798 children at the home for unmarried mothers between 1925 and its closure in 1961. The goal is to identify as many of the remains as possible through DNA testing, and to give all a dignified reburial. For many relatives, the hope is for closure. But a more fundamental question will most likely never be answered: how could a Christian institution treat women at their most vulnerable with such cold inhumanity, and simply dump their dead children into a pit in the dank earth? The team will attempt to identify individual babies through DNA samples from living relatives, but it’s expected that a large number will never be identified. They’ve lain there for decades, gradually exposed through local myths, historical research, and state apologies. Now, for the first time, they should finally be brought to the surface.
Many of the children who died at the institution in Tuam are believed to have been dumped into a former sewage tank, known as “the pit”, according to local historian Catherine Corless.
It was her painstaking research that uncovered the deaths of 798 children at the home for unmarried mothers between 1925 and its closure in 1961.
Of those, just two were buried in a nearby cemetery. The remaining 796 are, it’s presumed, buried at the site.
“I’m feeling very relieved,” the historian told Sky News as the excavation begins.
“It’s been a long, long journey. Not knowing what’s going to happen, if it’s just going to fall apart or if it’s really going to happen.”
Image: Catherine Corless’s research exposed the story about the deaths of 798 children at the home
Ms Corless’s findings in 2014 shocked Ireland and made headlines around the world.
It exposed the dark underbelly of a mid-century Ireland heavily swayed by Catholicism and its cruel attitudes towards illegitimate children and the women who bore them, often sent to mother and baby homes before being separated from their offspring.
A decade later, a team of investigators led by Daniel MacSweeney is embarking on a forensic excavation that could last for two years.
The goal is to identify as many of the remains as possible through DNA testing, and to give all a dignified reburial.
A seminal moment in the search for closure Stephen Murphy Ireland correspondent @SMurphyTV Every time I’ve stood on the damp grass at the Tuam site, I’ve experienced an eerie feeling of sadness or foreboding. Knowing that just a few feet below – many in a disused sewer system – are tiny human bones, fragments of children utterly dehumanised in death as in life, is deeply discomforting. They’ve lain there for decades, gradually exposed through local myths, historical research, lurid headlines, political outrage and state apologies. Now, for the first time, the remains of hundreds of stigmatised Irish children should finally be brought to the surface. It will be a painstaking forensic process, most likely lasting for years. The team will attempt to identify individual babies through DNA samples from living relatives, but it’s expected that a large number will never be identified. For many relatives, the hope is for closure. This dig may offer physical remains for reburial to many of those families. But a more fundamental question will most likely never be answered: how could a Christian institution treat women at their most vulnerable with such cold inhumanity, and simply dump their dead children into a pit in the dank earth?
Image: The former building at Tuam – now demolished. Pic: PA
It’s a glimmer of hope for people like Annette McKay, who now lives in Manchester. Her mother Margaret “Maggie” O’Connor gave birth to a baby girl in the Tuam home in 1942 after being raped at 17.
The girl, named Mary Margaret, died six months later. Annette remembers her late mother recalling how “she was pegging washing out and a nun came up behind her and said ‘the child of your sin is dead’.”
Annette now hopes her infant sister’s remains can be exhumed at Tuam and laid to rest with Maggie. Margaret O’Connor reunited with her child.
“I don’t care if it’s a thimbleful, as they tell me there wouldn’t be much remains left; at six months old, it’s mainly cartilage more than bone. I don’t care if it’s a thimbleful for me to be able to pop Mary Margaret with Maggie. That’s fitting.”
Image: ‘We need to know from that dirty, ugly place what happened there,’ Annette McKay says
For Annette, now 71, Tuam is emblematic of a different time in Ireland.
“We locked up victims of rape, we locked up victims of incest, we locked up victims of violence, we put them in laundries, we took their children, and we just handed them over to the Church to do what they wanted,” she said.
“My mother worked heavily pregnant, cleaning floors and a nun passing kicked my mother in the stomach. And when that place is opened, their dirty, ugly secret, it isn’t a secret anymore.
“It’s out there. And we need to know from that dirty, ugly place what happened there. So first and foremost, we want answers to that place.”
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Image: The home was knocked down and the grave site is now bordered by houses
The Irish government made a formal state apology in 2021 after an inquiry found an “appalling level of infant mortality” in Ireland’s mother and baby homes, concluding that around 9,000 children had died in the 18 institutions investigated.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin said at the time that “we had a completely warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy, and young mothers and their sons and daughters were forced to pay a terrible price for that dysfunction”.
The Sisters of Bon Secours, which had run the Tuam home, offered their “profound apologies”, admitting the children were “buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way”, and offered financial compensation.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player 12:55 ‘The state failed you’ – Irish PM apologises
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As the dig – which could last up to two years – starts at the Bon Secours site, the people of Tuam are still grappling with the contempt and neglect that occurred in their town.
“I’m still trying to figure that out,” said Ms Corless. “I mean, these were a nursing congregation.
“The church preached to look after the vulnerable, the old and the orphaned, but they never included illegitimate children for some reason or another in their own psyche.
“I never, ever understand how they could do that to little babies, little toddlers. Beautiful little vulnerable children.”
German town offering free 2-week stay in attempt to convince people to move there
Eisenhüttenstadt, around 60 miles from Berlin, is accepting applications for the program. It is part of an “innovative immigration project’ named “Make Plans Now’ Local businesses will offer internships, job shadowing and conduct interviews with tourists, who can move there and join their labor force. The city, which now has a population of around 24,000, was built in 1950 around a steel mill and is home to the largest integrated steelworks facility in eastern Germany.
Eisenhüttenstadt, around 60 miles from Berlin, is accepting applications for the program — which will run from Sept. 6 to 20 — until the beginning of July.
“The project is aimed at anyone interested in moving to Eisenhüttenstadt—such as commuters, those interested in returning to the town, skilled workers, or self-employed individuals seeking a change of scenery,” the local council said in a statement, according to CNN Travel.
Eisenhüttenstadt, around 60 miles from Berlin, was built in 1950. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
The initiative in the city, which now has a population of around 24,000, is part of an “innovative immigration project” named “Make Plans Now,” the council continued.
Those enrolled in the program will also participate in activities designed just for them, including a tour of Eisenhüttenstadt, home to historical buildings from the Soviet era.
One man was so captivated by its architecture that he had already moved there.
“We were traveling to Ratzdorf with friends and drove through Karl-Marx-Straße. And I saw these houses, this architecture that completely blew me away, and I said to my wife, ‘I’m going to move here,’” he wrote on the town hall’s Instagram account.
Eisenhüttenstadt, which means Steel Mill Town, was built around a steel mill.
Guests will get the chance to explore its factories as well.
The town also houses the largest integrated steelworks facility in eastern Germany, which employs 2,500 people and acts as a metals processing hub.
Local businesses will offer internships and job shadowing. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images
Local businesses will also offer internships, job shadowing and conduct interviews with tourists, who can move there and join their labor force.
Founded in 1950, Eisenhüttenstadt was the first town built from scratch under then East Germany’s socialist government.
At its peak, it boasted a population of 50,000.
It was originally named Stalinstadt, or Stalin Town, after the late Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, but was renamed after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the German reunification.
US sends second aircraft carrier, USS Nimitz, to the Middle East as Iran-Israel conflict continues to boil
The Nimitz, the oldest of America’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, left the South China Sea, where it was supposed to arrive at central Vietnam later this week. The US military has also moved a large number of refueling aircraft to Europe to provide options to President Trump for aerial operations in the region. The Nimitz will join the San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group, which is stationed in the Gulf of Aden where the Houthi rebels have been attacking commerce ships.
The Nimitz, the oldest of America’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, left the South China Sea, where it was supposed to arrive at central Vietnam later this week.
Its course changed Monday for the Middle East due to “an emergent operational requirement,” sources told Reuters.
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5 F/A-18E Super Hornet launching from the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. USS Nimitz (CVN 68)
5 Navy sailor aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) stands watch at a gun turret. USS Nimitz (CVN 68)
The aircraft carrier’s new heading was flagged by the ship-tracking website Marine Traffic.
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The US military has also moved a large number of refueling aircraft to Europe to provide options to President Trump for aerial operations in the region, officials told Reuters.
The Nimitz will join the San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group, which is stationed in the Gulf of Aden where the Houthi rebels have been attacking commerce ships.
5 USS Nimitz aircraft carrier in the Philippine Sea. USS Nimitz (CVN 68)
The US ordered the departure of the troubled USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier from the region earlier this month following months in the region.
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5 USS Nimitz aircraft carrier arriving at Naval Base Guam for a port visit. Joint Region Marianas
The Truman made back-to-back headlines in April and May when two of its $60 million fighter jets fell into the Red Sea during evasive maneuvers to avoid incoming attacks from the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
America’s commitment to maintaining multiple aircraft carriers in the region comes as tensions continue to escalate on the fourth day of missile exchanges between Israel and Iran.
5 One of the sources said the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi had informed him about the cancellation, due to “an emergent operational requirement” USS Nimitz (CVN 68)
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While Trump maintained that the US would not get directly involved in the conflict, he mused that America could eventually step in if a peace-deal isn’t reached soon.
With Post wires
796 dead babies expected to be found hidden in septic tank at unwed mothers’ home run by nuns
Excavation has begun on a site in Ireland that authorities believe contains the remains of nearly 800 dead babies and children. Many of the infant remains are feared to have been dumped in the cesspool known as “the pit” at the former institution in the small town of Tuam. Bon Secours, known locally as The Home, was a maternity home for unmarried mothers and their children, run by a religious order of Catholic nuns. The full scale of the tragedy was only uncovered in 2014 thanks to local historian Catherine Corless’s research. It is expected to take up to two years to identify the remains and give them a dignified reburial and offer some degree of closure to survivors. The land, attached to a home run by nuns between 1925 and 1961, was left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972. It was only in 2022 that legislation was passed in Parliament enabling the excavation work to start at Tuam, County Galway, where the site is located.
Many of the infant remains are feared to have been dumped in the cesspool known as “the pit” at the former institution in the small town of Tuam, County Galway, local historian Catherine Corless told Sky News.
In total, 798 children died at the home between 1925 and its closure in 1961, of which just two were buried in a nearby cemetery, Corless’ research found.
10 Beneath the ground at this peaceful spot in the town of Tuam, significant quantities of human remains have been identified. Getty Images
10 The land, attached to a home run by nuns between 1925 and 1961, was left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972. AFP via Getty Images
The other 796 children’s remains are believed to be under the site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, which was demolished in 1971 and is now surrounded by a modern apartment complex.
Bon Secours, known locally as The Home, was a maternity home for unmarried mothers and their children, run by a religious order of Catholic nuns.
Unmarried pregnant women would be sent to the home to give birth and would be interned for a year to do unpaid work.
They were separated from their newborn children, who would be raised by the nuns until they were adopted, often without the consent of their families.
The full scale of the tragedy at Bon Secours was only uncovered in 2014 thanks to Corless’s findings.
10 Her research pointed to the children’s likely final resting place: a disused septic tank discovered in 1975. REUTERS
10 Excavation crews will seal off the site before beginning the search for remains next month. Getty Images
10 It was only in 2022 that legislation was passed in Parliament enabling the excavation work to start at Tuam. Getty Images
Now, finally, more than a decade on, a team of investigators began their forensic investigation this week.
It is expected to take up to two years to identify the remains of the infants and give them a dignified reburial and offer some degree of closure to survivors.
“I don’t care if it’s a thimbleful, as they tell me there wouldn’t be much remains left; at six months old, it’s mainly cartilage more than bone,” Annette McKay, whose sister is believed to be one of the 798 victims, told Sky News.
10 After giving birth at the homes, mothers were then separated from their children, often through adoption. AFP via Getty Images
Her mother, Margaret “Maggie” O’Connor gave birth to a baby, Mary Margaret, at the home after she was raped at the age of 17.
The girl died six months later, and her mother only found out when a nun told her.
“She was pegging washing out and a nun came up behind her and said ‘the child of your sin is dead,’” said Annette, who now lives in the UK.
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Bon Secours was just one institution that made up a network of oppression in Ireland, the true extent of which has only been revealed in recent years.
Mothers at Bon Secours who “reoffended” by having more children out of wedlock would be sent to Magdalene laundries, the infamous Irish institutions for so-called “fallen women,” usually run by Catholic orders but quietly supported by the state.
Originally the term “fallen women” was applied mostly to sex workers, but the Magdalene laundries would come to take in “seduced” women, victims of rape and incest, and female orphans or children abandoned or abused by their families.
10 The commission report concluded that 9,000 children had died in the homes across Ireland. Getty Images
10 Homes were run in various ways — some funded and managed by local health authorities and others by Catholic religious orders. Getty Images
10 In her kitchen, she showed AFP a copy of a 1947 inspection report of the Tuam home. AFP via Getty Images
10 It described John as “a miserable emaciated child,” even though he was born healthy a year earlier. AFP via Getty Images
The last of the Magdalene laundries only closed their doors in the 1990s.
Ireland’s government issued a formal state apology in 2014 and, in 2022, a compensation scheme was set up which has so far paid out the equivalent of $32.7 million to 814 survivors.
The religious orders that operated many of the laundries have rejected appeals from victims and Ireland’s Justice Minister to contribute to the program.
Greta Thunberg and ‘selfie yacht’ pals refused to watch ‘horror film of the Oct. 7 massacre’: Israel
Greta Thunberg and other detained activists on her Gaza-bound “selfie yacht’ refused to watch a film detailing Hamas’ slaughter of more than 1,000 people in Israel. Israel dismissed the saga as a stunt, noting how the celebs onboard, including Irish actor Liam Cunningham, had posed smiling pictures for social media. The activists said they were protesting a humanitarian crisis in Gaza since the conflict began with Hamas’ terror attack 20 months ago.
“Greta and her flotilla companions were taken into a room upon their arrival for a screening of the horror film of the October 7 massacre,” Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said of the group’s arrival in the port of Ashdod after they were detained about 125 miles off the coast Monday.
3 Thunberg was deported Tuesday after being detained aboard the Gaza-bound “Madleen,” which Israel dismissed as a “selfie yacht.” REUTERS
But “when they saw what it was about, they refused to continue watching,” Katz said, according to The Times of Israel.
“The antisemitic flotilla members are turning a blind eye to the truth and have proven once again that they prefer the murderers to the murdered and continue to ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas against Jewish and Israeli women, adults and children,” Katz said..
Thunberg agreed to be deported from Israel along with two other activists and a journalist, according to Adalah, a legal rights group representing the group. The 22-year-old was flown home to Sweden via France.
Other activists who refused deportation were being held in detention, with their cases set to be heard.
3 Video from Oct. 7 showed Hamas terrorists kidnapping an bound and bloodied woman.
The activists said they were protesting a humanitarian crisis in Gaza since the conflict began with Hamas’ terror attack 20 months ago.
Israel has maintained that such ships violate its naval blockade of Gaza.
3 Thunberg smiled as she was detained by Israeli forces.
Israel, for its part, dismissed the saga as a stunt, noting how the celebs onboard, including Irish actor Liam Cunningham, had posed smiling pictures for social media.
“The ‘selfie yacht’ of the ‘celebrities’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are safe and were provided with sandwiches and water,” the ministry posted on X.