No burial records found for 80 children who died in institution that predated Tuam mother and baby home
In 1925 Glenamaddy was condemned and its occupants were moved to the former workhouse in Tuam. File photo: Eamonn Farrell / © RollingNews.ie
Mystery continues to shroud the whereabouts of the graves of 80 children who died in Glenamaddy – the institution that predated the Tuam mother and baby home.
Both Galway County Council and Tusla have confirmed to the that neither body holds burial records for the 80 babies and infants who died between 1921 and 1925.
Prior to Tuam opening, children were housed with their mothers in Glenamaddy, an institution which was set up in 1921 by Galway County Council as part of its reorganisation of services for the poor. In 1925 it was condemned and its occupants were moved to the former workhouse in Tuam.
The Commission of Inquiry, established in 2015 to examine 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes, found that 80 children had died in Glenamaddy in its four years of existence, while research conducted by local historian Catherine Corless found that 796 children had died in the Tuam home. An excavation of the Tuam site is currently taking place in a bid to identify the bones discovered there.
However, no state agency or organisation can confirm where the 80 children who died in Glenamaddy are buried.
A spokesperson for Tusla told the Irish Examiner: “The records that Tusla holds relate to the admission and discharge registers for Glenamaddy and Tuam homes. Tusla does not hold any burial records. Tusla co-operated fully with the commission and provided full access to all records pertaining to the investigation.”
A spokesperson for Galway County Council said: “We do not appear to hold any records that could assist with your query. Tusla (Merlin Park) may have registers with the names of children, and further details, in the home when it was located at the former workhouse in Glenamaddy.
The news follows the HSE recently confirming to the that it has no burial records for 80 children who died in Galway hospital, and whose deaths were also revealed by the commission.
Meanwhile, research by Daniel Loftus, a genealogist and founder of the Project Infant, shows that not only are the whereabouts of the children's graves a mystery, the commission’s numbers for the children’s deaths in the Glenamaddy are incorrect. He told the his research shows 84 children died in the Glenamaddy home and he has published their names on his website.
“In January 2021, the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation stated that 80 children had died in Glenamaddy," said Mr Loftus. “In August 2022, Project Infant had conducted research into the Glenamaddy Children’s Home - finding that 84 children had died in Glenamaddy between 1922 to 1925, before the institution moved to Tuam.
The Sisters of Bon Secours who ran the Glenamaddy and Tuam homes, told the commission that all institutional records (that is, records of admissions, births, discharges and deaths which were compiled in the home) were handed over to Galway County Council when the home closed in 1961.
In the years since Tuam closed, these records have been used mainly for tracing purposes. The commission said in its final report it is “concerned that some records may have been lost or destroyed over the years” and that “it is impossible to establish if the records currently held by the Child and Family Agency constitute all of the records which existed when Tuam closed in 1961".
The first ever mass grave exhumation got underway in Tuam on July 14, in an effort to locate the missing 796 children believed to be buried there. Mr Loftus said it is “concerning that the burial place for 80 additional children connected with this institution is still unknown”.
“I hope that with the archive access given to the Office of the Direction of the Intervention at Tuam by the Bon Secours Sisters that it may help in the Tuam exhumation effort, while hopefully pointing to something that might shed some light on the whereabouts of the children who had died in the Glenamaddy Children’s Home", he said.
