The site of a former state-funded, Catholic-run mother and baby home in Tuam, Ireland is seen in this undated photo. Photo: CNS. A planned new documentary aims to counter the widespread belief that the Bons Secours Sisters who ran the Tuam mother and baby home deliberately neglected, or even murdered, more than 800 babies over its 36-year history, and then ‘dumped’ the bodies in a septic tank. The documentary is being made by local historian, Eugene Jordan. The news comes as the latest report from the official dig at the site reveals that 77 bodies have so far been found there, all buried in coffins.
The story about the children who died at the home first emerged in 2012 when another local historian, Catherine Corless, found the death certificates, but no burial records, for almost 800 children, mostly babies, who died between the opening of the home in 1925 and its closure in 1961. Galway County Council was legally responsible for the burials and for keeping burial records.
When the story broke, headlines in Ireland and around the world said that the nuns had ‘dumped’ the bodies in a ‘septic tank’ and there were accusations that the nuns had either killed the babies or deliberately neglected them to death.
The death records show that the babies died from natural causes at a time when infant mortality generally was high, and was particularly high in overcrowded conditions.
Eugene Jordan is past President of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society and has written extensively on the subject of the Tuam home and is a critic of coverage of the home and how it was run. He hopes his documentary will be out at the end of this year.
Meanwhile, the latest report from the Office of the Director of Authorised Interventions Tuam (ODAIT), which has been charged with finding the bodies at the site of the home said a further eight bodies have been found, bringing the total dating to the period of the mother and baby home to 77 so far. All were found in white coffins. Bodies are in an underground structure. The dig has not begun to investigate that structure yet. ODAIT issues updates on a roughly monthly basis.