The remains of seven infants have been found at the site of a former Irish mother and baby institution.
Excavating teams made the discovery on the site of St Mary’s Home in Tuam, County Galway.
The bodies were found in an area adjacent to the ‘underground vaulted structures,’ the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention said.
Local history Catherine Corless who first discovered that hundreds of human remains were buried in a former sewage tank told Sky News: ‘I never, ever understand how they could do that to little babies, little toddlers. Beautiful little vulnerable children.’
A full analysis is to be carried out to estimate the infants’ age at death and is expected to take up to three months, the agency confirmed.
St Mary’s Home was run by the Bon Secour sisters from 1925 to 1961.
Prior to this, the site was used as a workhouse for 80 years and a military barracks for seven years.
It is unclear as to which era the remains are from.
Another two sets of remains were found that are believed to date from the workhouse era.
Mass excavation of remains started in July and is expected to continue until 2027.
In a tearful statement, Annette McKay, who is the sister of a baby that is thought to be buried there, told Sky News about her experience in the home.
She said her mum was raped at the age of 17 and had her baby at Tuam. McKay recalled the gut-wrenching moment Irish nuns told her mother that her child had died aged six months.
She said: ‘[Mum] was pegging washing out and a nun came up behind her and said “the child of your sin is dead – now go.” What hurt me more than anything is she was 18.’
McKay said she doesn’t care if it’s just a ‘thimbleful’ of remains left, she wants to be able to put her dead baby sister next to her now deceased mother so they can finally be together.
PJ Haverty lived at the Tuam home for six years after he was born. He told the BBC that Tuam was not a ‘home’ because there was an absence of love and care.
He added: ‘We were just locked up in there. I call it a prison.’
In addition to human bodies, excavators have also found several animal bones, thought to be from the kitchens of both the mother and baby institution and the workhouse.
Like many mother and baby homes at the time, women were kept from their offspring after birth, who were then put up for adoption.
Practices at the home came into the spotlight in 2014, when it was revealed that the remains of as many as 796 infants were unaccounted for, with no records of burial relating to their death certificates.
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