Tuam Babies historian reveals touching moment Cillian Murphy ‘surprised’ her

Catherine Corless said she was taken aback when the actor approached her and shook her hand at the event in Dublin last month.

Ms. Corless and her family were invited to the premiere of "Small Things Like These," a film based on Claire Keegan’s award-winning novel about a lone man who went up against the power of the Magdalene Laundries.

Ms. Corless, whose tireless research resulted in the shocking discovery that 796 babies were buried in a septic tank at the Tuam mother and baby home, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: "He was walking by and he obviously recognized me – I was very surprised at that – and he just shook my hand and said 'well done.'

"It was lovely. I was also talking to his parents and his wife Yvonne for a good while, and I couldn’t believe how much they knew about what happened in the Tuam home. They knew all about it, they were very much steeped in it. I was so impressed with that.

"I was delighted they knew so much about Tuam and the children who died there."

Catherine Corless in Tuam in 2014. (RollingNews.ie)

Ms. Corless was invited to the premiere by the film’s producers, which she attended with her husband, daughter, and granddaughter.

"It was very nice of them to ask us, and Cillian Murphy was absolutely superb in it. The film showed the grimness of Ireland in that time so well.

"People have said the film was claustrophobic, and I understand that because that’s what Ireland was like in those days," she added.

The role Ms. Corless played in the discovery of the babies’ remains in Tuam will also soon be depicted on screen.

Earlier this year, the Mail on Sunday revealed an actress has been chosen to play the historian in the film, with shooting scheduled to take place next year.

Actor Liam Neeson bought the rights to the movie – which will be co-produced by the Oscar-winning Irish film company Element Pictures – in 2018.

"The Lost Children of Tuam" will shoot on location in Ireland and tell the story of how Ms. Corless’s research led to the discovery of the mass grave at the mother and baby home, as first revealed in the Mail on Sunday in May 2014.

Ms. Corless this weekend said the name of the actress who will play her, and other details about the film, will be revealed in spring next year.

Asked about speculation Oscar winner Cate Blancett has been lined up to play her, she laughed: "Ah come on, she’s a lot younger than me! I can’t say anything else except that the actress will be closer to my age."

Ms. Corless revealed the filmmakers have already spent a day in Tuam filming the site of the former home and the septic tank where some of the babies remain buried.

"There’ll be a scene in the film where the Tuam infants will be walking along to the school in their clogs. I really wanted that scene to go and it to be shot in Tuam.

"There had been talk of doing it in a studio, but the producers agreed to do it in Tuam, and I’m very happy about that."

* This article was originally published on Extra.ie.