New infant burial site discovered at Tuam Mother and Baby home amid ongoing excavation

The site of the former so-called Tuam Mother and Baby home in Ireland's County Galway is seen in 2024, prior to the excavation works. (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Warning: The following story contains graphic details.

A second burial area for infants has been found at the site of a former so-called Mother and Baby home in western Ireland in what forensic experts said Friday marks a “significant” discovery in the ongoing excavation of the institution’s grounds.

Nearly 800 infants and children died at the Tuam institution – run by the Bon Secours Sisters – over the course of 36 years. Their bodies are believed to have been disposed into a mass grave.

The discovery was made by local historian Catherine Corless in 2014, who found that 796 babies had died at the County Galway institution without burial records and that they had been placed in a decommissioned sewage tank.

This summer, an excavation overseen by the independent body Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention in Tuam (ODAIT), began.

In its latest update, ODAIT said that forensic experts found “consistent evidence” of the second burial ground.

“There were no surface or ground level indications of the possibility of a burial ground at this location prior to excavation,” it said.

Director Daniel MacSweeney told national broadcaster RTE Friday that the second burial area is about 50 to 100 meters away from the septic tank.

Since the excavation started in July, the remains of 11 infants have been found, including the bodies of four babies that were found last month, ODAIT said. Their remains have since been coffined and sent for forensic analysis.

MacSweeney said that 160 people have contacted ODAIT so far to offer their DNA to help identify the bodies. He has called upon other eligible family members to come forward to do the same.

The Tuam institution was one of dozens of “homes” where pregnant girls and unmarried women in Ireland were sent to give birth in secret for much of the 20th century.

Women were often forcibly separated from their children. Some infants were rehomed, in Ireland, the United Kingdom or as far away as the United States, Canada and Australia, but hundreds died and their remains discarded – their mothers often never knowing what truly happened to their babies.

In 2015, the Irish government set up an investigation into 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes, which found “significant quantities” of human remains on the Tuam site. The inquiry found an “appalling level of infant mortality” in the institutions and said that no alarm was raised by the state over them, even though it was “known to local and national authorities” and “recorded in official publications.”

Prior to 1960, mother and baby homes “did not save the lives of ‘illegitimate’ children; in fact, they appear to have significantly reduced their prospects of survival,” it said. The state inquiry led to a formal government apology in 2021, the announcement of a redress scheme and an apology from the Sisters of Bon Secours.

As the excavation at Tuam continues, advocates and survivors are calling on the government to ensure that the other institutions are fully examined and investigated.

The forensic works at Tuam are expected to last for two years.

By Kara Fox, CNN