Nearly 800 infant remains found in septic tank at nun-run Irish unwed mother and baby home, June 2025

[DS2021]

Remains of nearly 800 babies, children could be in waste tank at nun-run Irish unwed mother-and-baby home

Crews in Ireland began work this week to excavate the site of a former church-run home for unmarried women and their babies to identify the remains of what's expected to be around 800 infants and young children who died there.

www.foxla.com

The Brief

Crews began excavating the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Ireland.

Nearly 800 infant remains were found in a septic tank on the site.

The home was run by Catholic nuns and closed in 1961 after many children died there.

 

[DS2021]

Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

This is a rabbit hole

 

[Baba O'Riley]

This was the "home" that my mother was in when my half-sister was born in 1940. My half-sister was yanked from my mother's arms at the age of two while they were both institutionalized there, and my mom never saw her again.

 

[LadyL]

This was the "home" that my mother was in when my half-sister was born in 1940. My half-sister was yanked from my mother's arms at the age of two while they were both institutionalized there, and my mom never saw her again.

so sorry for your loss

 

[LadyL]

this reminds me of the residential school deaths in Canada - why would they throw babies and children into a septic tank? why would they need to hide those deaths?

 

[LadyL]

Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

This is a rabbit hole

you got that right!

'up to 1,000 children from the home might have been sent to the United States for the purpose of illegal adoptions'

 

[Baba O'Riley]

so sorry for your loss

Thank you. Although my poor mom never saw her again, my three siblings and I, who are from the US, have been to Ireland many times since my sister found us 20 years ago, and she has been here to see us three times. She went on to have a happy life after an unhappy childhood.

I see another post indicates 1,000 children were shipped to the states for adoption. Of course, the nuns and\ or the Church made money this way. My sister wasn’t considered a candidate for sale to an American family because she was almost deaf in one ear, probably because of neglect.

 

[DS2021]

Dig begins at site in Ireland believed to hold remains of nearly 800 infants

Archaeologists, anthropologists and forensic experts aim to identify infants buried at former mother and baby home in Tuam

www.theguardian.com

At St Mary’s in Tuam, a so-called mother and baby home where young women and girls were sent to give birth, some infants were buried in a disused subterranean septic tank.

There were no burial records and the deaths were ignored until a decade ago when Catherine Corless, a local historian, uncovered death certificates for 796 infants. This led to a judicial commission, a state apology and a promise to excavate the site.

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The operation aims to recover all the human remains, attempt to identify them, return them to their families and rebury them with dignity. The size and location of the site, water filtration and the co-mingling of remains, plus the proximity of other remains from the 19th-century famine and workhouse eras, made the operation highly complex, said MacSweeney.

 

[I am not Sherlock H.]

My word, this is dastardly. IMO I wonder whether or not some of the supposed ‘adoptions’ of individuals shipped to other states might have been cover or a story told for something else? SMH.

 

[AcerPacer]

A six-year enquiry sparked by the initial discoveries in Tuam found 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such homes over a 76-year period.

Excavations beginning at mass grave site of babies and children at former home for unwed mothers in Ireland

Catholic nuns ran an institution there between 1925 and 1961, housing women who had become pregnant outside of marriage and been shunned by their families.

www.cbsnews.com

This is absolutely horrific!
I had never heard of this before! Those poor women and girls. 56,000 of them traumatised for life at the hands of the Bon Secour Sisters.
I am sure there will be many people who, like @Baba O'Riley (I am so sorry for your mum and sisters experience) come forward to speak about this.

How on earth did these nuns manage to coerce so many people into this huge cover up?

 

[TMich6811]

A six-year enquiry sparked by the initial discoveries in Tuam found 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such homes over a 76-year period.

Excavations beginning at mass grave site of babies and children at former home for unwed mothers in Ireland

Catholic nuns ran an institution there between 1925 and 1961, housing women who had become pregnant outside of marriage and been shunned by their families.

www.cbsnews.com

This is absolutely horrific!
I had never heard of this before! Those poor women and girls. 56,000 of them traumatised for life at the hands of the Bon Secour Sisters.
I am sure there will be many people who, like @Baba O'Riley (I am so sorry for your mum and sisters experience) come forward to speak about this.

How on earth did these nuns manage to coerce so many people into this huge cover up?

Why do I think 800 infant remains isn’t quite the max of infant/adult remains that are on this property