Troubled Ground - Episode 2: Families hope that mass excavation can unveil the secrets of Tuam mother and baby home

Irish Examiner podcast explores how local research into a hidden burial site sparked international outrage and official action

Troubled Ground is a two part Irish Examiner podcast that explores the historic exhumation of a mass grave at the site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co Galway.

Troubled Ground is a two-part podcast that explores the historic exhumation of a mass grave at the site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co Galway, involving the remains of 796 infants and children.

In episode 2, the spotlight is on Tuam, a small town in the west of Ireland where the excavation of a mass grave believed to contain the remains of up to 796 babies and children is getting underway. Many people didn’t believe the children were buried here, some even called it a hoax and had to retract these claims.

As excavation works get underway at the site of the former mother and baby home, reporter Alison O’Reilly talks to relatives of children believed to be buried on the site who are hoping that this dig will answer the questions that have dogged their families for years. She meets the experts charged with this extremely challenging work to get details of how the process will work.

As the diggers begin their work, nobody knows what secrets the grounds of a former mother and baby home will finally yield but many hope that this will signal the beginning of a new chapter of this traumatic story.

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