Support the Call for an immediate Exhumation, Coronial Investigation, Identification of the Human Remains, that lay under the former Tuam Mother & Baby Home Institution

 

In 1975, the first Human Remains were discovered on the site of the former Tuam Mother and Baby Home Institution. In the following period there were growing concerns about the possibility of high death rates along with inappropriate burials expressed to media and other sources.

Such was the outcry against these findings, along with further confirmation, that up to 796 Childrens remains rested within the grounds of the former Institution, contained within a sewage-system or within other parts of the property.; they were in effect classed as ‘disappeared’.  In 2014, the Irish Government called for a Commission of Investigation into the operation of Mother & Baby Homes. In 2016, as a result of Public pressure, the Commission began the process of test excavations on the former site.

In 2017, the Commission of Investigation announced that there were: “significant quantities of human remains” found within the site; the then Taoiseach described the findings as amounting to a “Chamber of Horrors”. In 2018, the Irish Government announced that they would cause for a forensic excavation of the site and that each child would be exhumed, identified and given a ‘respectful’ burial.

The 5th Interim report of the Commission of Investigation concluded that the burials: “did not provide for the dignified interment of human remains”.

In 2020, the Irish Government introduced a ‘Burials Bill’ to facilitate the Exhumation of the Tuam and other similar sites across Ireland. The Bill has been severely criticised by Campaigners for its shortcomings such as, failing to utilise existing legislation to achieve the same goals. One area of deep concern relates to the dis-application of the role of the Coroner and thereby the prospect of a full investigation into the deaths of the Children.

In the absence of any urgency from the Irish Government, the Families of the Lost Children, and surviving Family Members, who have yet to receive confirmation that a family member is interred within these grounds, anxiously wait to hear when they will be reunited with their kin.

We are calling for the following:

•    That the Irish Government rethinks its proposed Burials Bill and listen to the voices of the families of the disappeared Children and Mothers;

•    That the Irish Government presents an immediate and clear timetable when the Exhumations for the Tuam Mother and Baby Home site will commence;

•    That timetable should also set out when Exhumations will begin at other sites;

•    That a full Topography & Analysis of the entire site of the former Tuam Mother & Baby Home (including the tarmacked areas, playground, grassed areas and the shrine area), be carried out before any Exhumations commence;

•    That the State obtains the services of Internationally renowned Forensic and Anthropological Archaeologists;

•    That the Local Coroner and An Garda Síochána be fully engaged during the Exhumation and Investigations thereafter;

•    That all bodies so found are fully accounted for and where possible, their causes of death are established;

•    That the bodies found have their DNA extracted and that the Irish Government creates an International Public Information Campaign to find and identify surviving relatives;

•    That any reinternment is carried out with the full wishes of surviving family members and where none exist, for Victim/Survivor Groups to be consulted fully;

•    That the full outcome of the Exhumations are set out in a Public record, including the methodology and actions taken by the Coroner and the An Garda Síochána, to hold those either individually or corporately responsible to account.

 

We thank you for supporting the petition created by the Tuam Mother & Baby Home Alliance; we ask if you could please circulate our call for support amongst your family and friends.

                                        Tuam Mother and Baby Home Alliance