IRELAND
NPR – the two-way
by CAMILA DOMONOSKE
June 03, 2014
An Irish community recently discovered the bodies of hundreds of children in a septic tank behind a former home for unmarried mothers. The home, located in the town of Tuam near Galway city, had been run by the Bon Secours nuns between 1925 and 1961.
The Irish Mail, drawing on documents provided to it by local historian Catherine Corless, reported Sunday that as many as 796 children may be interred in the mass grave. The newspaper continues:
“Inspection reports unearthed from files of the local health board show that the home housed hundreds of children many of whom suffered deformities, malnutrition and neglect. Causes of death included malnutrition, measles, convulsions, tuberculosis, gastroenteritis and pneumonia.
“The babies were usually buried in a plain shroud without a coffin … no memorial was erected to the dead children and the grave was left unmarked. The site is now surrounded by a housing estate.”
In 1944, according to the newspaper, a local health inspection report listed 333 occupants in a home built to house 243. Thirty-one infants were living in a sunroom and balcony; they were described as “fragile, pot-bellied and emaciated.” A 9-month-old in a different room was “emaciated with flesh hanging loosely on limbs.”
The death rate was high — 300 children perished in the span of three years, according to the report cited in the newspaper.
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