Tuam residents are left to wonder what still lies undiscovered

By Declan Tierney
Connacht Tribune
March 12, 2017

http://connachttribune.ie/tuam-residents-left-wonder-still-lies-undiscovered-044/

Paper dolls, representing the babies and children that died at the mother and baby home in Tuam, hang on the rails of the childrens playground at Eyre Square during a public vigil in June 2014.

Around 80 residents in Tuam are now wondering if they are sitting on the remains of dead children that were buried in the mother and baby home in the town; and they fear that their properties could now be excavated as the next part of this horrific investigation begins.

Homeowners on Athenry Road in Tuam, whose houses were built on the site of the Tuam mother and baby home, are now concerned that they could be living over shallow graves. Some are anxious that the matter be investigated.

The houses at Athenry Road in Tuam were built around during the 1970s when the mother and baby home was long closed. The houses were constructed by Galway County Council at the time.

Following last weekend’s revelation that human remains were discovered at the Tuam home, local residents are now concerned that their properties may have been built over ‘unofficial’ graveyards.

The revelation of the discovery of the children’s remains does not come as a surprise to local residents who either knew or had their suspicions that kids were buried there.

Residents are now of the belief that they are sitting on houses that are graveyards to little children who died in the home. They now want to place memorials there as opposed to having their gardens dug up.

Former resident of the area, Mary Moriarty moved into her house in 1975 and said that the site at the time contained a hospital, church and an old house before they were demolished.

She said that she saw a young boy playing with a skull and stick. She asked to see it and knew it was that of a child of around eleven as it had a full set of teeth. He told her that he had found it in a tank where there were “loads of them”.

Ms Moriarty said that it was outside the graveyard, where the current excavations took place, and she saw bones down there. There was a subsidence in the ground and she went down into the hole.

She saw what she described as “little bundles” wrapped in cloth. She immediately thought they were children, who weren’t baptised, who were put there. “I thought they were still-born babies,” she said.

Ms Moriarty said that Galway County Council had “an awful cheek” to give planning permission to build houses there when they knew there was a structure underneath.

“For me, they should not have built houses on it. There are tombs all over the place”, she maintained. She believes that there are graves underneath the playground which was built on the Bon Secours site as well as underneath the houses. Galway County Council have insisted that this is not the case.

The facility in Tuam was run by the Bon Secours sisters and closed in 1961. It has become the subject of an intense Garda investigation at the moment. The vast majority of nuns who ran the facility are now dead.

But the residents of Athenry Road and Tubberjarlath in Tuam now fear that they may be living on the remains of children’s bodies. However, they do not want their properties excavated as part of an investigation.

“We want to leave things as they are. There is nothing to be gained by further digs,” another resident told The Connacht Tribune.

After the home for mothers and babies closed down in the early 1960s, the grounds were taken over by Galway County Council who later built houses there. It is estimated that there are around 80 houses built on the mother and baby home in Athenry Road in Tuam.

Following the weekend revelations, residents are now concerned that they may be living on properties where children have been buried. But the vast majority do not want their properties unearthed as part of the ongoing inquiry. They want them to be left alone.

Most of the residents in the general Athenry Road area of Tuam were not shocked by the findings of Galway County Council who revealed that they had discovered human remains at the site. For the past 45 years local residents either knew or had their suspicions that there were children buried on the site of the mother and baby home.

Many want the situation exposed while there are others who simply want the situation to be acknowledged and a plaque erected in the memory of those buried there.