Five sets of skeletal remains found at Tuam site from before mother and baby home

The full exhumation began on July 14, after an 11-year campaign to find the remains of 796 children who died in the former home for unmarried mothers between 1925 and 1961. File photo: PA

Forensic teams excavating the grounds of the former mother and baby home site in Tuam have recovered five sets of skeletal remains from the former workhouse that pre-dated the Catholic-run institution.

The second technical monthly update by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) shows that specialists working at the site, uncovered remains that are “consistent with the Workhouse era dated 1841 to 1918”.

The report said “further human remains were uncovered at the end of the reporting period and forensic excavation continues".

“In accordance with agreed provisions, ODAIT is co-operating with the National Museum of Ireland, the authority with responsibility for historic human remains," it said. 

"These human remains are currently undergoing analysis by ODAIT, and more information will be shared once this analysis has progressed."

The full exhumation began on July 14, after an 11-year campaign to find the remains of 796 children who died in the former home for unmarried mothers between 1925 and 1961. The grounds were sealed off on June 16.

Test excavations in 2016 and 2017 showed the children were buried in a large disused sewage system which is now subject to the country's first ever mass grave exhumation.

The remains of the children from the home have not been recovered yet and their burial site will be the last to be excavated during the 5,000 square feet intervention that is expected to take up to two years.

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The forensic team in its update on Friday, said apart from the single fragment of dissociated human adult tooth mentioned in the previous technical update, “no other human remains were found during the excavation of that part of the site. No further analysis of this tooth is planned at this time".

Other evidence has also been retrieved including a window frame, and personal and medicinal items dating from the institutional era, such as pottery, shoes, spectacles and glass baby bottle feeders. Lower layers of ground contained glass bottles, clay pipes, enamelled tableware and chamber pots of pre-institutional date.

The excavation for this reporting period has concentrated on three locations which include the site of a former workhouse yard while the machine excavation continued in the site of the former workhouse yard.

The report said: “Hand excavation continued in two (outlined in orange below) of the nine (outlined in yellow below) Test Trenches abutting the 19th-century boundary wall. 

The excavation has so far concentrated on three locations, including the site of a former workhouse

“A part of the site (outlined in red) where workhouse plans indicated a possible subterranean vaulted structure.

“Machine excavation began, intended to expose the vaulted structure indicated in plans of the workhouse. Exposure of these potential subterranean voids was necessary to safely excavate to forensic standards the lands adjoining."

The excavations have uncovered materials from four main eras in the site’s history:

• Post-institutional: 1961 onwards;
• Institutional (the era of the Mother and Baby Institution): 1925 to 1961;
• Military: 1918 to 1925;
• Workhouse: 1841 to 1918.

Animal bones were also recovered during the excavation works “likely from the institutions, military and work house kitchens”.

All evidence recovered is being photographed, catalogued and retained by ODAIT.

The excavation continues.