Americans in general have difficulties grasping the concept of a State Church. The state and the church in Ireland were not separate entities, NKP_Vet.
Ireland, during that era, was one of the poorest countries in Europe, perhaps only surpassed by Albania. The state had very little money to provide, with far more needs than supply. The Catholic Church in Ireland, being predominantly made up of the poor, also had far more needs than money to fulfill them.
Could the nuns have done things differently or better with the land and resources they had access to? What land did they have? Could they afford to buy any of the surrounding farmland for more cemetery space (assuming the owners were willing to sell)? And few were, as land was scarce for the needed crops.
If only we could transport back in time see firsthand what they were dealing with, and to show them the error of their ways.
I toss these ideas and questions out not in an attempt to justify or rationalize anything, but rather with an (amateur) historian’s eye toward the context and conditions of the time, place and circumstance as opposed to through our lens of a wealthy society in the 21st century.
As an aside, my family came from (and many still live) in an area ranging from 1.5 and 5 miles of the site in Tuam, and there are 9 names on the list with my own last name.