It is not possible to construct a schedule of works for the excavation and recovery of children’s remains at the site of the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman said this week when he appointed experienced envoy Daniel MacSweeney as the director to oversee the project.
Mr Mac Sweeney worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC ) from 2007 to 2023 in various roles focussed on the protection of persons affected by armed conflict and violence, including separated families and missing persons. Most recently, he was the ICRC envoy on missing persons in the Caucasus. In that role, he worked to clarify the whereabouts of over 2,300 people unaccounted for after conflicts of the 1990s and 2008.
In Tuam, it is believed some 796 babies and young children were buried in a sewage system on the site between 1925 and 1961.
Minister O’Gorman said that the treatment of these remains was “particularly abhorrent” and that it is not possible as of yet to lay out a schedule of works for the excavation, saying that due to the complexity of the operation, that will be decided upon by the forensic experts.
Mr MacSweeney will head the independent office that has been established in Galway under the Institutional Burials Act 2022 to oversee the work of ensuring the children’s remains in Tuam, Co Galway, are recovered and re-interred in a respectful and appropriate way.
O’Gorman also secured Government approval to engage Sheila Nunan to act on his behalf in leading the process of negotiation with all religious bodies who had a historical involvement in Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions.
Tuam historian Catherine Corless whose sterling work uncovered the Tuam story said that it was good to hear that finally something is going to happen” after “dragging on for so long”. The recruitment for the posts was due to have concluded four months ao.
“It’s heart-breaking that it took so long to get the government to have a will to do something for them. It was an atrocity right from the start when I found out back in 2014 and I just couldn’t understand why something didn’t happen immediately.”
She noted that archaeologists who discovered the bones told her “within six months you must take those remains out of here”.
“So it’s nine years later, and nothing has happened yet, but it’s good that it will happen and that was my focus all along, just to get those babies out and to give them a decent Christian burial.” Ms Corless added that she is hopeful that some of the remains can be identified.
