Tuam grave exhumation: 'Deeply emotional' day for families as dig finally gets under way

After 11 years of campaigning, the grounds of the former institution will be excavated in the hope of finding the 796 children who died there from 1925 to 1961. Picture: Eamonn Farrell / RollingNews.ie

The site of the former Tuam mother and baby home has now been sealed off to members of the public and will remain closed for at least two years for the first ever mass grave exhumation in Ireland.

Containers, diggers, hoarding, and blockades now encompass the inner grounds of the Dublin Road housing estate, where the former Bons Secours-run mother and baby home operated for 40 years.