Second annual family and survivor day at former Tuam mother and baby site to take place

The mass grave at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam Galway.

The second annual family and survivor day at the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam will take place this month, providing family members and survivors with an update on the excavation and identification programme.

The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) said the strictly private event on July 23 is exclusively for family members of those believed to be buried at the site and survivors of the Tuam institution.

The day is intended to provide those directly affected with an opportunity to visit the site, receive updates on the intervention, and engage with the team overseeing the excavation and forensic analysis.

Families and survivors will also visit the new forensic facility and mortuary at Toghermore, where they will receive an overview of the analysis process that will be carried out following the excavation.

The visit will include meeting the ODAIT team and forensic specialists, and allow families to ask questions and learn more about the work being undertaken.

Professional counselling support will be available throughout the day in recognition of the sensitive nature of the visit, families have been told.

Organisers have asked that the privacy of all attendees be respected, and any family members wishing to attend should contact them.

Separately, a media day has been arranged for Tuesday, July 22. Journalists will meet at Tuam Stars GAA Club before receiving briefings from ODAIT director Daniel MacSweeney, forensic archaeologist Niamh McCullagh, and forensic programme manager Oran Finnegan.

The programme will also include a visit to the forensic facility and mortuary, where further information on the excavation and forensic analysis process will be provided.

It is one year since the mass exhumation began at the site of the former mother and baby home, where the remains of 796 children are believed to be buried. The institution predominantly housed women who were pregnant outside of wedlock.

So far, forensic specialists have recovered the remains of 77 babies in the tedious process of machine and hand excavation. However, they have not yet reached the area known as the "green site", at the centre of the 5,000square metre site where a "significant quantity of human remains" is believed to have been buried.

The scandal came to light in 2014 after researcher Catherine Corless uncovered the names of the children.