Families of Tuam babies welcome plan for exhumation at mother and baby home

Daniel MacSweeney said he has been regularly engaging with the families of the Tuam babies as well as survivors and their advocates and local residents. Photo: Moya Nolan

Families of the children who died in the Tuam mother and baby home, have welcomed the news that the exhumation of the site is planned for early next year.

On Friday, the Director of the Intervention at the controversial burial ground, where up to 796 children are believed to be buried in a septic tank, confirmed the timeline for the works to the Irish Examiner.

Cork man Daniel MacSweeney, who is to oversee the excavation, said providing that no issues emerge during the three different phases of the construction process, he hopes that the intervention will take place in February 2025.

Local historian Catherine Corless, who uncovered the names of the children a decade ago, said she is "overwhelmed" at the news the work is starting.

"I can’t get my head around it," she said. I have to go over it a few times, they know what they are doing. To think they are going in there in September to start the testing, it makes it real, for 10 years we have said ‘will it happen’ and now it is."

Anna Corrigan's mother Bridget Dolan was in the home twice where she had two children that she never told her daughter about.

Ms Corrigan said: “There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel, it is more than I expected in my lifetime,” she told the Irish Examiner. “Hopefully the children will get the recognition they deserve."

Catherine Corless, who uncovered the names of the children a decade ago, said she is "overwhelmed" at the news the work is starting. File photo: Ray Ryan

UCC Professor Thomas Garavan’s aunt died in the Tuam home in 1936 from meningitis. He said he is “cynical” about the intervention.

“We now have a timeline, but what is the end result? It could be all for nothing. What is going to be the outcome? Will we really be able to identify the children and make matches, will we ever know? 

"It doesn’t end with the children being found; I just wonder will we ever know who they all are. We need people to come forward and give their DNA."

Annette McKay, whose sister Mary Margaret O’Connor died at the home in 1943 from whooping cough, said: “I am absolutely delighted that we seem to have a timeline and working to a start in February 2025."

The preliminary phase of the process will begin then and include surveys of the site, including geotechnical surveys as well as drilling into the ground. A plan will be developed and a designer will then be appointed to do a utility survey.

After a further six weeks,  a dynamic purchasing option will be looked at and if that is not possible there will be a 20-week option under EU guidelines.

Mr MacSweeney said he has been regularly engaging with the families of the Tuam babies as well as survivors and their advocates and local residents.

A tender for a Consultant Engineer to begin preliminary works at the burial site, which is in the middle of the Dublin Road housing estate in Tuam, Co. Galway, was advertised by the Office of Public Works on Friday.

The process for the exhumation will be done in phases:

• A 12-week tender phase overseen by the Office of Public Works which begins today.
• An eight-week preliminary phase which will see a construction engineer examining the site from September.
• Followed by an eight-week design phase.

Providing no major issues arise, the exhumation of the Tuam babies can begin in February 2025.