Remains of nearly 800 babies, children could be in waste tank at nun-run Irish unwed mother-and-baby home

COUNTY GALWAY, Ireland - Crews in Ireland began work this week to excavate the site of a former church-run home for unmarried women and their babies to identify the remains of what's expected to be around 800 infants and young children who died there.

Many of the remains could be found in an old, disused sewage tank, according to authorities. 

The backstory:

The long-awaited excavation at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway in western Ireland, is part of a reckoning in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country with a history of abuses in church-run institutions.

The home, which was run by an order of Catholic nuns and closed in 1961, was one of many such institutions that housed tens of thousands of orphans and unmarried pregnant women who were forced to give up their children throughout much of the 20th century.

In 2014, historian Catherine Corless tracked down death certificates for nearly 800 children who died at the home in Tuam between the 1920s and 1961 — but could only find a burial record for one child.

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Finding a mass grave

Dig deeper:

Investigators later found a mass grave containing the remains of babies and young children in an underground sewage structure on the grounds of the home. The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland found that the ages of the deceased ranged from 35 weeks gestation to 3 years.

A major inquiry into the mother-and-baby homes found that in total, about 9,000 children died in 18 different mother-and-baby homes, with major causes including respiratory infections and gastroenteritis, otherwise known as the stomach flu.

Tuam Mother and Baby Home survivor PJ Haverty, who was born in the home in 1951, is pictured at the former site's memorial garden where it is believed 796 children are buried on March 5, 2022 in Tuam, Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

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Nuns offer apology 

What they're saying:

The sisters who ran the Tuam home had offered a "profound apology" and acknowledged that they had failed to "protect the inherent dignity" of women and children housed there.

"It’s a very, very difficult, harrowing story and situation. We have to wait to see what unfolds now as a result of the excavation," Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Monday.

A general view of the remembrance garden on the former site of the Bon Secours Mother and Baby home can be seen on June 15, 2025 in Tuam, Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

What's next:

Daniel MacSweeney, who leads the exhumation of the babies' remains at Tuam, said that survivors and family members will have an opportunity to view the work in coming weeks.

"This is a unique and incredibly complex excavation," he said in a statement, adding that the memorial garden at the site will be under forensic control and closed to the public from Monday.

Forensic experts will analyze and preserve remains recovered from the site. Any identified remains will be returned to family members in accordance with their wishes, and unidentified remains will be buried with dignity and respect, officials said.

The work is expected to take two years to complete.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that the tank in question is a sewage tank, not a septic tank, and to clarify that many remains are expected to be found but have not all been found yet.