Bodies of children donated to Belfast university for research

Bodies of children donated to Belfast university for research Baby clothing and other items are hang from a wall in Tuam Photo: CNS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

The bodies of at least 27 children from mother and baby homes, workhouses and hospitals were donated to Queen’s University Belfast for medical research, a children’s rights campaigner has found.

The Times reported that the information was compiled using the Freedom of Information Act by Eunan Duffy, an adoptee from a Newry mother and baby home.

The donations of the bodies to the end of medical research and teaching at Queen’s University, and parental consent wasn’t legally required in many of the recorded cases.

It is expected that the number of donations will exceed 27 as Mr Duffy has not yet received data on male bodies that Queen’s University received from the late 1930s to 1950s.

“Donors did not receive any form of payment for the receipt of remains,” The Times reported Queen’s University as saying last week.