Nearly 800 babies likely inside hidden septic tank at home for unwed mothers: official

TUAM, Ireland (WKRC) – The remains of nearly 800 infants and children are expected to be found inside a hidden septic tank at a home for unwed mothers.

According to the Associated Press (AP), long-awaited excavation work began Monday at the site of a former home for unmarried women and their babies in Tuam, Ireland, which was operated by Catholic nuns.

Irish officials believe 798 children died at Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, an institution that was run by an order of Catholic nuns. The home, which closed its doors in 1961, was one of many church-run institutions in Ireland that housed tens of thousands of orphans and unmarried pregnant women who were forced to surrender their children throughout much of the 20th century, the AP reported.

According to the publication, historian Catherine Corless in 2014 tracked down the death certificates for nearly 800 children who died at the home between the 1920s and 1961. Corless only found a burial record for a single child.

After an investigation was launched, officials located an underground sewage structure now known as “the pit.” The septic tank, located on the grounds of the home, was determined to be a mass grave that contained the remains of children and infants.

The AP reported that DNA analysis found that the ages of the children ranged from 35 weeks gestation to three years old. The primary causes of death included respiratory infections and gastroenteritis, also known as stomach flu, per the publication.

“It’s a very, very difficult, harrowing story and situation. We have to wait to see what unfolds now as a result of the excavation,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Monday, according to the AP.

Daniel MacSweeney, who is leading the exhumation of the children at Tuam, said the excavation process is “unique and incredibly complex.” The AP reported that it is expected to take two years to complete.

The Irish government formally apologized in 2021 after an inquiry found an “appalling level of infant morality” at the homes, with an investigation determining that approximately 9,000 children had died in the institutions, per Sky News.

The Sisters of Bon Secours, which operated the home in Tuam, admitted the children were “buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way,” and offered their “profound apologies,” along with financial compensation, the outlet reported.

According to The New York Post, mothers at Bon Secours who bore additional children out of wedlock were often sent to Magdalene laundries, which were infamous institutions for “fallen women” that were typically operated by the Catholic church.

“Fallen women” was a term mostly applied to sex workers, although the laundries would also take in victims of incest, rape, female orphans and children that were abandoned or abused by their families, The Post reported.

The last of the Magdalene laundries closed sometime in the 1990s, per The Post.

“I mean, these were a nursing congregation,” Corless told Sky News. “The church preached to look after the vulnerable, the old and the orphaned, but they never included illegitimate children for some reason or another in their own psyche. I never, ever understand how they could do that to little babies, little toddlers. Beautiful little vulnerable children.”