Again, just how were the bodies of these almost 800 unfortunate children at that home disposed of, who died at a rate four to five times higher than in Ireland as a whole?
Where did they go, if not into that septic tank?
"Stop judging by appearances, but judge with righteous judgment." (John 7:24)
Any fair-minded reader would be looking for answers, not simply passing on lurid speculations. Just twenty four hours later, the "800 baby corpses dumped in a septic tank" story has already been debunked:
Tuam mother and baby home: the trouble with the septic tank story (Irish Times link)
These children --- according to the documentary records on file in the county --- died because epidemics of infectious diseases like pneumonia, gastroenteritis and TB were sweeping through West Ireland (rocky, boggy Connemara, the poorest edge of the poorest country in Western Europe) -- during a time when there were neither vaccines nor antibiotics (pre-1950) --- and when whole wards ---in orphanages, paupers' shelters, and old age homes--- could be wiped out in a couple of weeks.
Where they are all buried has not yet been determined, but at this point the writer of the original story (Catherine Corless)is saying they "cannot" be in that famous, world-wide-reported pit, because only "several" small skulls have been found there.
The individual ---Barry Sweeney --- who as a boy actually found the burial pit 40 years ago, in 1975, thinks he remembers "about 20" and the assumption at that time was that they were much older remains from the Great Famine. The actual residence was built in 1840, N.B. 174 years ago.
Interim summary: No excavation of the property has been done. There has no exhumation or forensic analysis of human remains. No 800 skeletons have been found.
And there were records of health board inspections from the 1920's and 1930's which recorded zero --- zero --- evidence of abuse or neglect.
This is an appalling episode in the history of the miserable hardships of the Irish people. It is stomach-churning to think of what was suffered, not only by the tiny children themselves, but by the impoverished women who birthed them and the other impoverished women (very similar in age and circumstances) who struggled to care for them.
That's not as satisfactory --- for some people's purposes -- as a lurid headline, though, is it?
One of the controversial aspects of the historian's research, is that she is counting stillbirths among the 800, as "children who died at the home." Normally, however, mortality rates are calculated as a percentage of live births. You can see how including still births would slant the figures above the national average. Still births were very common right up until the 60s, and are often seen even now, with all our advances.
Another issue, not much discussed, is that children born to unmarried teenage girls - right now in this day and age - have a higher than normal death rate, higher rates of disability, and higher rates of poverty and disadvantage.
One would have to compare the figures from the Tuam home with those of births among disadvantaged households in Ireland, for a true statistic picture.
As an Australian, I do assure you that in all sorts of places there are anonymous graveyards for the unnumbered dead. In my country, they are found beside the old TB Hospitals, and places like that. There are lots of them. It is not shameful. They died and rest in peace. Often the land is later recycled for some other use.