IRELAND
Sunday Independent
Maeve Sheehan and Niamh Horan
Published 08/06/2014
TWO senior gardai are to conduct a “fact-finding” mission into the deaths of 796 babies believed to be buried in a mass grave in Tuam, the Sunday Independent has learned.
The officers were appointed on Friday, on foot of a request by Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald to gather the “facts” behind reports that almost 800 children were buried near a disused septic tank at a mother and babies home that was run by the Bon Secours nuns.
They have been asked to gather all surviving records, including death certificates and the ledgers kept by the mother and baby home until it closed in 1961. Crucially, the officers are also expected to carry out preliminary tests on the site of the suspected mass grave, which lies on the edge of a housing estate in the Galway town.
The exploratory inquiry marks the first step in an official Garda response to the revelations, as yet another religious scandal that was overlooked by Irish authorities for years hit the international headlines.
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