Mick Clifford: Can excavation of Tuam babies bring closure?

Anna Corrigan, Peter Mulryan, and Annette McKay whose siblings are thought to be buried at the Tuam mother and baby site, took part in a protest in Tuam over delays in the exhumation of the remains. Picture: Andy Newman

This week, the Minister for Children advertised for people to serve on the Advisory Board of Authorised Intervention, Tuam. The board will oversee the excavation at a site in the former mother and baby home run by the Bon Secours nuns in the Co Galway town. The site is a disused sewage tank where the bodies of babies who had died were dumped, deposited, thrown, in the most disrespectful manner when the home was in use. Between 1925 and 1961, 796 babies are recorded as having died in the home, usually soon after birth.

Last Sunday, there was a scheduled protest by a relative of one of the babies. Annette McKay, whose sister died in Tuam, wanted people to gather with shovels to protest at the delay in excavating the site.