IRELAND
Sunday Independent
Maeve Sheehan
Published 15/06/2014
THEY are the babies that society has tried to forget. Many were born in “shameful” circumstances to unmarried or impoverished mothers at a home in Tuam.
Those who weren’t given up for adoption were sent to industrial schools or Magdalene Laundries.
Seven-hundred and ninety-six babies died, their resting place unmarked.
The local historian who discovered the scale of baby deaths in St Mary’s can find no burial records. They are thought to have been buried in unmarked graves on the site of an old septic tank. There is no plot with their names on it that says they lived – for however short a period – or that they died.
Today we publish for the first time official public records documenting the harsh, short lives of the 796 babies and children who died in Tuam.
The records, compiled by the General Register Office and released on Friday to this newspaper, do not say where the babies are from to protect their privacy. The records give the babies the dignity of being called by their name, while the notes and causes of death entered after their names tell their own story.
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