Tuam babies’ DNA to be recorded

By John Mooney
Sunday Times
March 5, 2017

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/tuam-babies-dna-to-be-recorded-lcqr7ttgv

The remains of an unknown number of children were found at the mother and baby home in Tuam Photo by RAY RYAN

A DNA database is expected to be established to record the remains of the young children whose bodies were found in underground chambers on the site of a former home for unmarried mothers in Tuam, Co Galway.

Discussions are under way involving the government, Galway county council, gardai and representatives of a commission investigating alleged abuses at religious-run mother and baby homes about what action should now be taken.

The focus is on how to identify the remains, how to remove the bodies from the site, and whether it will be possible to establish causes of death. No decision has been reached on where the bodies will be reinterred.

The remains of an unknown number of children, ranging in age between 35 foetal weeks and three years old, were discovered in recent weeks by the commission, which last week said there were “significant quantities of human remains” in 17 of 20 underground chambers.

Gardai do not believe there is any prospect of pursuing criminal charges against anyone associated with the order of the Bon Secours Sisters, the Catholic order of nuns that ran the home.