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Oh, there's a lot of them: I saw a map at one of those many links (I just clicked through 3 links and couldn't find it, but it's there) that shows scores of locations of mass graves, some of them on the grounds or former grounds of Catholic, Protestant,and County institutions for infants, the elderly, and paupers; some of them in churchyards but unmarked; some at the edges of town property.

At periods when there was a high death rate from infectious diseases --- TB, pneumonia, measles, gastroenteritis, influenza --- no antibiotics and no vaccines--- one of the only things you could do to curb the epidemic was to bury the bodies quickly.

And the compassionate caregiving women most definitely spent their very limited funds for food, soap, and cotton underwear, and not caskets and headstones.

The death rates at the Bon Secours Home was staggering to us, but at the low end of overall death rates at the time (Scroll down til you get to the newspaper clipping from 1935).

"Between 1925 and 1937, 204 children died at the Home — an average of 17 per year. 17 deaths out of 200 children equals a mortality rate of 8.5%. It is interesting to compare that with the rest of the country at the time. In 1933, the infant mortality rate in Dublin was 83 per thousand (ie. a mortality rate of 8.3%), in Cork it was 89 per thousand ( 8.9%), in Waterford it was 102 per thousand ( 10.2%) and in Limerick it was 132 per thousand (8.5%).

....

"In foundling homes in the US in the early 20th century, mortality was sometimes reported as greater than In foundling homes in the US in the early 20th century, mortality was sometimes reported as greater than 90% among infants cared for in such institutions."

I'll try to find that map tomorrow.