Image source: Office of the Certified Intervention Manager, Tawam
Ireland has now recovered the remains of 99 infants and children from the site of the former Tuam Mother and Baby Home in County Galway, a place that has become a symbol of one of the darkest chapters in the country’s institutional history.
The new discoveries, announced in a recent update, are part of ongoing forensic excavations that are slowly shedding light on what happened to the hundreds of children who died there and perhaps, through DNA analysis, recovering some of their names and identities, according to reports.The institution, officially known as the Tuam Mother and Child Institution, was owned by Galway County Council and run by the Bon Secours Sisters, an order of Catholic nuns, between 1925 and 1961.
It housed unwed mothers and their children at a time when pregnancy out of wedlock was highly stigmatized in Ireland. For decades, what happened behind its walls remained largely hidden. That changed in 2014, when local historian Catherine Corliss painstakingly uncovered 796 death certificates for infants and toddlers who died at the home but there were no corresponding burial records.
Her research raised a painful question: Where were the children buried?Trial excavations conducted in 2017 found “large quantities” of human remains in underground chambers at the site, confirming that many children were buried there.
These findings shocked the country and the world, prompting both the Bon Secours regime and Galway County Council to apologise, and paving the way for an official state-licensed excavation. In 2025, the Irish government established the Office of Authorized Intervention Manager, Tuam (ODAIT), and began a full forensic search operation.In its latest update, ODAIT confirmed that another 22 sets of children’s remains were recovered between June 1 and July 15 this year, bringing the total number of individuals found so far to 99.
Reports indicate that all of these remains were discovered in coffins, in an area on the southwestern edge of the site that is identified in historical records as a “burial ground.” The area, which was covered with asphalt and gravel and used as a driveway, had no surface marks indicating the presence of children buried underneath.
Previous work in the same area had already uncovered the remains of 77 children, with some ancient historical burials underneath, indicating that the land had been used as a burial site over a long period.The remains are now being transferred to a newly equipped mortuary and laboratory at Toghermoor in Tuam, which was created specifically for this intervention. There, a team of forensic experts will carefully clean, dry and examine them. The work will include x-rays and 3D scanning, with the aim of reconstructing the basic details of each child’s life and death: their age, sex and, where possible, evidence of their health and how they died.
These scientific details cannot tell the whole story, but they can narrow the list of possible matches when compared to surviving records and family information.The main part of the process is DNA analysis. So far, 62 people have submitted DNA samples in the hope of finding a genetic match for relatives who were born in Tuam and never returned home. The samples will be compared to DNA extracted from the remains, as part of an official identification programme.
Authorities have encouraged anyone who believes they may have a loved one buried at the site to come forward. Reports indicate that each new sample expands the possibility of identifying at least some of these children, reclaiming their names, and giving their families a measure of truth and long-overdue recognition.Scientific work has evolved as excavations have progressed. Legislation is being updated to allow not only parents and siblings, but also children’s first cousins to participate in the DNA programme, reflecting advances in forensic genetics that make meaningful matches possible even with distant relatives.
For families whose parents or grandparents have died, this can be crucial. This may be their last realistic chance to connect a family story, often whispers and fragments, to a particular child buried in Tuam.The excavations themselves are expected to continue until at least 2027, with follow-up work extended beyond that. So far, 99 sets of remains have been discovered in a relatively concentrated area, and experts said hundreds more could be found.
The part of the site containing a memorial garden, where previous investigations revealed underground chambers filled with remains, has not been fully excavated under the current programme.
As this work progresses, the number of children recovered is likely to increase.For many in Ireland, Tuam represents both personal grief and national reckoning. Women who passed through the institution, relatives of children who died there, and survivors of other mother-and-baby homes, see the excavation as long-overdue recognition.
It is, in a sense, the country finally digging into its past. The Bon Secours sisters, who once ran the home, admitted the children were “buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable manner” and apologised.
The order helped fund the drilling costs, while Galway County Council apologized for the “failure of mothers and children”.However, even with the bones recovered and studied, the story of Tuam is about more than just a burial site.
It is about how unwed mothers were treated, how their children were registered and then seemingly erased, and how societies ignored this. Death certificates uncovered by Catherine Corliss showed that hundreds of children died in Tuam, often from diseases linked to poverty, overcrowding and poor sanitation.
The lack of burial records indicates the disregard their lives and deaths witnessed.Current forensic efforts cannot erase this history, but they can do something crucial: treat the dead with dignity, provide clarity where possible, and provide families with answers rather than silence. As the remains are lifted from the ground into the laboratory light, each small piece becomes part of a larger memorial work. Scientific instruments—scanners, x-ray machines, DNA sequencers—have become tools not only of investigation, but also of belated respect.Irish work in Tuam is hard, slow and emotionally heavy. It will take years to complete, and there are no guarantees that all, or even most, of the children buried there will be identified. But the recovery of 99 infants so far, and the ongoing DNA analysis, indicate a commitment to confronting this painful history with greater honesty than previous generations allowed. In doing so, the country is not only uncovering remains; It also acknowledges the lives that were once hidden, and finally makes room for their stories to be told.
