Preparatory work to identify remains of 800 infants at Irish mother and baby home begins

[Incanus]

"Preliminary work aimed at identifying the remains of nearly 800 infants is starting on the site in Tuam, Co Galway, as Ireland continues to wrestle with the traumatic legacy of its mother and baby homes scandal.

Catherine Corless, a local historian who first sounded the alarm about the dark past of the institution run by nuns from the Bon Secours order, uncovered the names of 796 infants who are believed to have been buried there between 1925 and 1961, some in a disused subterranean septic tank. There were no burial records.

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It was Corless’s work that led to an Irish commission of investigation into the so-called mother and baby homes, to which young women and girls were sent for decades to give birth in, rather than in hospital or at home. Doubling as orphanages and adoption agencies for much of the 20th century, the institutions were run by religious orders with sanction by the state, which overlooked deprivation, misogyny, stigma and high infant mortality rates.

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The existence of mother and baby homes has been described as a dark stain on Irish society. In 2017, the then taoiseach Enda Kenny described what was revealed about Tuam as “a chamber of horrors”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/16/preparatory-work-to-identify-remains-of-800-infants-at-irish-mother-and-baby-home-begins?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other


This is what happens when governments don't protect women from religion, when birth control and abortions aren't available, when religious conservatives are allowed to make laws that force women to become incubators for the state. There is no excuse, no apology, no amount of blood money that will ever make this right.

[John1956PA]

1. I recall, about the seven years ago, when this horrendous history was revealed.

For the sake of making a stand against the hijacking of social issues by doctrinal influences, this newsworthy case should be repeatedly publicized.