I have a whole series of questions about this story.
Note that the grave is not “discovered”, rather people say that back in the 1970s two boys lifted a slab of an old septic tank, when they were playing on the convent grounds. They saw numerous little skeletons.
This is an unverified story - we are not even given the boy’s names. A local historian, Catherine Corless, says that she “knows” that these would have been the bodies of children who died during the years of the operation of that children’s home. But we need some evidence - does anyone even know exactly where this grave might be? And are we sure it contains 800 bodies? And are we sure this is not just a vague folk memory of discovering a mass pauper’s grave from the 19th century?
Interesting, sobering story.
But did you notice that it was a Washington Post story very, very unfavorable towards earlier attitudes and abilities and Catholics in particular?
What is the truth, how long was the burial site used? How many bodies were actually found? Do I trust ANYTHING from the Washington Post, or the NY Times, or the ABCNNBCBS TV readers? No.
But, sometimes, they are partially right.
What is unverified? It seems to be a widely and long time reported story, here is one from the Tuam Herald.
“Committee and Sisters meet over unmarked mass grave”
Wednesday, 4th June, 2014 10:20am
Story by Siobhan Holliman
A MEETING was to take place last evening (Tuesday) between the Bon Secours Sisters and members of the Children’s Home Graveyard Committee regarding a planned memorial at the unmarked children’s graveyard in Tuam.
Up to 800 children and babies are buried in the mass grave on Dublin Road close to the site of the former mothers’ and babies’ home which was run by the Bon Secours Sisters in Tuam between 1925 and 1961.
As frequently reported in The Tuam Herald, for the past two years a local committee has been researching the plot and historian Catherine Corless from Brownsgrove found that death records show that at least 796 children died and were buried at the home.
Galway East TD Ciaran Cannon has called for a Dáil inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the unmarked burial site.
Chairperson of the memorial committee Teresa Killeen Kelly says while the story has caught the attention of the national media and politicians have spoken of their shock, the committee’s priority remains to have dignity restored to the dead babies by having a plaque with their names erected at the site.
“We have commissioned a bronze plaque with the names and this will cost at least €6,500. There is other work that has to be done to improve access to the site. The minimum we need is €15,000 but we’re nowhere close to that at the moment,” she said.