This week, excavation teams in Ireland began work at a maternity home for unmarried girls with the goal of identifying nearly 800 sets of infant and child remains.

Since June 16, teams have begun erecting fences to block off the area in Tuam, County Galway (Ireland) in preparation for a large-scale excavation scheduled to take place on July 14.

The main goal of the excavation is to identify the remains of nearly 800 infants and young children from a maternity home for pregnant unmarried girls that was once under the control of the church.

Catherine Corless, a local historian, was the first to bring the case to light when she discovered a list of 796 babies who were believed to have been buried there between 1925 and 1961. Some were even buried in an abandoned underground septic tank. No official burial records were kept.

“There are so many children, so many little lives that have been abandoned here,” Corless told AFP .

Corless’s findings led to the Irish government setting up a Commission of Inquiry into maternity homes – where for decades girls and young women had gone to give birth instead of going to hospital.

Local media said these places were once symbols of discrimination with high infant mortality rates, but were ignored by society for many years in the 20th century.

In 2021, the Irish government issued a formal apology following the release of a comprehensive investigation report.

In the town of Tuam, the excavation site is now in the middle of a residential area and surrounded by a fence. Preparations are expected to last four weeks before the full excavation phase begins on July 14.

The site was once a workhouse. Finding the remains of infants is expected to be difficult, as it is possible that victims of the Great Famine of the 19th century may also be buried there.

“This is an incredibly complex challenge due to the scale of the site and the fact that we are dealing with infant remains mixed within the memorial area,” said Daniel MacSweeney, who is in charge of the excavation campaign.

Previously in 2014, historian Catherine Corless first published the shocking results of an investigation when she found death certificates for nearly 800 children who had been at Tuam camp, but only one case had burial records.

Investigation later confirmed that there was a mass grave located under a sewage structure on the site, where the remains of infants and children ranging in age from 35 weeks to 3 years were found.

In the past, young, unmarried women who became pregnant were brought here to give birth. They were separated from their newborns. The babies were raised in the church until they found new adoptive families .

A subsequent large-scale investigation into mother and baby homes across Ireland found that around 9,000 children had died in 18 similar facilities. The main causes of death were respiratory infections and acute diarrhoea.

In a statement to the press, Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin admitted that “this is a very heartbreaking story” and that we must wait to see what more the excavation reveals.

During the exhumation, forensic experts will analyze and preserve the remains. Those whose identities can be determined will be returned to their relatives. In cases where they cannot be identified, the government has announced that they will be buried with dignity and full rites.

The entire excavation work is expected to take about 2 years.