Thousands of infants could be buried in mass graves on National Children's Hospital grounds

John Gilroy, archaeologist. Picture: Denis Minihane

Tens of thousands of infants could be buried in mass graves in, or close to, the grounds of the new National Children's Hospital, according to an archaeologist who extensively researched records of a predecessor of mother and baby homes which stood on that site.

The new hospital is being built on the site of a former foundling hospital which was founded to prevent infanticide.

It was previously reported that there could have been a paupers' grave and workhouse on the site, operating in the 1600s and 1700s, though an environmental impact study at the site found no evidence of graves. 

However, archaeologist and former senator John Gilroy has said that the presence of the foundling hospital on the site and the enormous death rate among those at the hospital indicates a high likelihood of thousands of children being buried there. 

The rate of deaths there “bordered on corporate-engineered genocide”, said Mr Gilroy, who researched its horrendous past.

Of the 52,150 infants admitted to the Dublin foundling hospital between 1796 and 1826, a total of 41,524 died. And of the 5,216 infants sent there between 1790 and 1796, just three survived. 

Infants admitted to the Infirmary of the Dublin Foundling Hospital 1790-1796

Mr Gilroy came across horrific reports relating to the times, including one written in 1876 by the 'Inspector of Foundlings' William Dudley Wodsworth.

“It tells the deeply disturbing history of Dublin’s foundling hospital," said Mr Gilroy.

I wish to point out that much of what is contained in the report makes for very distressing reading.” 

At one stage, the matron insisted on a pay rise because of the trauma she endured regularly watching the bodies of infants being thrown into pits and covered with lime.

In 1702, Dublin Corporation spent £300 in laying foundations for a workhouse for the city on the site now occupied by St James's Hospital. The City Workhouse admitted its first inmates in 1706. In 1730, a foundling hospital was opened on the site to care for abandoned infants, he said.

Vaults of the Foundling Hospital, Dublin

It operated for nearly 140 years from 1702 until the introduction of the Poor Law Act in 1838.

“During that time, it's estimated almost 200,000 children, mostly infants, passed through its gates,” said Mr Gilroy.

The idea behind the establishment of the foundling hospital was to 'prevent exposure, death, and actual murder of illegitimate children' and to educate and rear them in the Reformed, or Protestant, faith."

Such was the demand that in 1730, the authorities created a ‘cradle or turning wheel’ in the door of the hospital.

“Anyone wishing to leave an infant there merely placed the child in the cradle,” said Mr Gilroy.

A simple mechanism allowed the cradle to be rotated through the doorway, taking the child inside. A bell was then rang to alert the porter.

"Children from all parts, north, east, west, and even from Wales were sent to it.” 

He believes that a “sensitive” memorial should be built on the site in recognition of the huge number of infants who died there.