Second secretive excavation carried out suspected burial site of 800 babies in Tuam

The second excavation on the site of the former Mother and Baby home in Tuam, County Galway was finally completed last week.

The tests were requested by the Irish Commission investigating the death and burial of up to 800 babies who died at the home, after their death certificates were discovered by the local historian Catherine Corless.

The latest excavation was reportedly conducted in the same area as the first one, carried out in October 2016.

This time, according to Corless, it appears that the archaeologists did a more comprehensive dig and examination.

“Some large steel sheets of approximately 10 by 8 feet were brought into the site last week. I have not been informed what these are for, as the Archaeologists are under 'a vow of secrecy' by the Inquiry Commission not to converse with anybody,” Corless wrote on her Facebook page.

“Although I have been before the Commission of Inquiry and have given them a copy of each and every piece of my years of research and findings into the Mother and Baby Home in Tuam and the children's graveyard, they do not engage with me as regards any revelations.”

Corless continued: “I continue to help the Survivors of this Institutions on a daily basis in a voluntary capacity. My first step is to give them the information, that Tusla hold the Registers of mothers and children who have been in the Tuam Home, and I direct them to Tusla for that information, but so many Survivors come back to me in dismay that Tusla have no answers for them except for a few scant details.

“I then use my own limited resources to help them find news of their mother's family, and often sadly just the resting place of family, as too much time has passed for contact.”

Meanwhile, progress on a new Mental Health Services facility near the investigation area could be halted by the claim that there are infants buried on lands to the rear of the site.

Planning permission is currently being sought by the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) for a retrofitting of the Grove Hospital building, which will reportedly become a Mental Health Services Facility.

County planners are expected to issue a decision on the application at the end of February, but a submission from a local resident has called for a stop on all work until a full and detailed archaeological assessment of the alleged burial site has been completed.