Mass unmarked grave for 800 babies in Tuam

Hate though I do to say it GCU has a point but the fact that this whole debacle is spinning out of control is completely the fault of the authorities.

To date no investigation of the site has taken place despite a file been sent to Fitzgerald in her capacity of Minister for Children over a year ago. A failure which has echoes of how files detailing dodgy doings in AGS were also ignored and of course these are now accepted by government as being accurate.

The evidence presented so far consists of death certificates for 798 children aged up to 9 years who were in the care of the Bon Secour sisters in Tuam. Exhaustive research by a local historian into internments in local cemeteries revealed only one of those named children as being buried locally- there are no records of the burial of the other 797.

Eye witness testimony from a local man which states in the mid 1970s he discovered an unknown quantity of human skeletal remains under a concrete cap in what is now known to be a disused septic tank on the grounds of what was the Bon Secour Mother and Child Home in Tuam.

Official reports from medical examiners of appalling conditions in the Bon Secour Mother and Child home in Tuam which detail overcrowding and severely malnourished children.

Evidence in the public domain of a death rate at such institutions that was far in excess of the norm - over five times more in the case of illegitimate children.

Evidence in the public domain that it was common practice for those who died in various Mother and Child homes throughout the State to be buried in communal graves/ unmarked graves/unrecorded graves usually within the grounds of the institutions.

Lack of denial that the internment of human remains in such a manner took place by the Bon Secour Order or the RCC hierarchy.

All of these combined make a strong case for an investigation into the site but despite the details being presented to government over a year ago none has taken place.



Dismissal by the AGS of the need for investigation as this site is, in their opinion, most likely the result of the Famine which ignores the fact that a Famine mass grave has already been discovered over 100 meters from the site.



Although the existence of a concrete covering (who put that there and when was it put there?) may interfere with non-invasive ground penetrating mapping equipment such as geo-phys, no attempt to even try has been made.

Forensic anthropologists have not been given access to the the site or any remains which may be there.

If, when this issue was reported to the Minister for Children, an investigation was begun we would not now be experiencing such levels of rage and, yes, hysteria, across the globe.

It also cannot be denied that if it was believed that human remains were on a site and may have been placed there by paramilitaries a full investigation would have taken place immediately.