Bons Secours Sisters release Tuam archives for first time as site excavation begins 

HistorianCatherine Corless at the entrance of the Tuam Mother and Baby site where work is now underway. Picture: Ray Ryan

The Bons Secours Sisters have opened their archives for the first time to allow forensic experts to review files from the former Tuam mother and baby home, where 796 children died over 40 years.

It comes as a specialised forensic team assembled from Ireland as well as Canada, Colombia, Spain, the UK, and the US begin the long-awaited exhumation of the Tuam babies’ burial ground, which will take at least two years.