Underneath a patch of grass in the middle of a housing estate is hidden a “dirty little secret” that is about to be exposed to the world.
A quiet, walled patch of grass in the middle of an Irish housing estate is set to reveal the latest disturbing chapter in Ireland’s “mother and baby” home scandal.
Beneath the ground at this peaceful spot in the town of Tuam, 220km west of Dublin, significant quantities of human remains have been identified.
The land, attached to a home run by nuns between 1925 and 1961, was left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972.
But on Monday, excavation crews will seal off the site before beginning the search for remains next month.
“There are so many babies, children just discarded here,” local historian Catherine Corless told AFP at the site.
It was her discovery of the unmarked mass burial site that led to an Irish Commission of Investigation into the so-called mother and baby homes.
In 2014, the now 71-year-old produced evidence that 796 children, from newborns to a nine-year-old, died at Tuam’s mother and baby home.
Her research pointed to the children’s likely final resting place: a disused septic tank discovered in 1975.
“There are no burial records for the children, no cemetery, no statue, no cross, absolutely nothing,” said Corless.
