IRELAND
Aljazeera
A mass grave containing the remains of babies has been found in the sewers of a former Catholic orphanage in western Ireland, according to investigators, confirming a local historian’s suspicions of the unmarked burial of hundreds of children.
Excavations found “significant quantities of human remains” in an underground structure divided into 20 chambers at the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway, a report from a government-appointed inquiry said on Friday.
The judge-led Mother and Baby Homes Commission said DNA analysis of selected remains confirmed the ages of the dead ranged from 35 weeks to 3 years old.
The investigators did not say how many babies’ remains were recovered, or how many might still be buried in what are believed to be the home’s sewage or waste water treatment system.
The announcement confirms decades of suspicions that the vast majority of children who died at the former home were buried in unmarked graves, a relatively common practice at such Catholic-run facilities amid high child mortality rates in early 20th century Ireland.
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