Chased for stealing apples, 2 Irish boys jumped over a wall in the ’70s. Then, they discovered a mass grave of 800 children

That nightmare, buried in what was once a septic tank, would later be revealed as one of Ireland’s darkest secrets. This month, after years of investigation, denial, and delay, forensic teams began exhuming the remains of nearly 800 infants and young children from the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home.

What was hidden behind 10-feet walls is now a matter of reckoning for Ireland, the Catholic Church, and a generation scarred by silence.

A relentless truth-seeker

The full truth of what the boys found might have vanished into memory were it not for Catherine Corless — a local woman with no training in investigative journalism or academia, but a burning sense of moral responsibility.

Corless, a homemaker with an interest in local history, set out to write a modest article on the long-abandoned institution. She soon found herself chasing ghosts. What she uncovered was staggering: 796 recorded deaths of children, and not a single burial record in any cemetery.

“I thought I was doing a nice story about orphans and all that, and the more I dug, the worse it was getting,” she said.

Digging equipment and workers at the site of St Mary’s home for unmarried mothers, in Tuam, Ireland, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam had operated between 1925 and 1961 in a repurposed 19th-century workhouse. Run by a Catholic order of nuns and funded by the state, it was part of a broader system across Ireland that institutionalised women who became pregnant outside marriage. Many were sent there in secret, shamed by families and parishes that sought to hide what they saw as moral failings.

Inside, conditions were stark: no running water beyond the kitchen and maternity ward, no heating in dormitories, and overcrowding that pushed infant mortality to horrific levels. Some years, over 40 per cent of babies died before their first birthday. In Tuam, nearly a third of all children born there perished.

Mothers worked without pay for up to a year and were then sent away, often never seeing their children again. The fathers — whether romantic partners, rapists, or perpetrators of incest — rarely faced consequences.

A personal discovery

While Corless pieced together her research, another woman, Anna Corrigan, was unraveling a mystery in her own family.

Corrigan had grown up an only child, but a long-suppressed memory — or perhaps a dream — had haunted her: an uncle, in a moment of anger, saying her mother had borne two sons. When Corrigan began researching her mother’s past, she unearthed a devastating truth: her mother, Bridget Dolan, had given birth to two boys at the Tuam home.

“I cried for brothers I didn’t know,” Corrigan said. “Because now I had siblings, but I never knew them.”

One of them, John Dolan, died during a measles outbreak in 1947. Though he was born healthy, an inspection report described him just weeks later as “a miserable, emaciated child.” Her second brother, William, was listed as dying in 1951 — but no death certificate exists. His birth date appears altered, a common practice used to disguise illegal adoptions.

Corrigan’s grief fuelled her activism. She connected with Corless and pushed officials at every level — from the local police to the prime minister — for answers.

National outcry

Corless first published her findings in 2012 in a quiet local journal. For a while, nothing happened. But when journalist Alison O’Reilly picked up the story in 2014 with a front-page headline — “A Mass Grave of 800 Babies” — the public response was immediate and explosive.

Some officials and media questioned whether the septic tank could really have been used as a grave. The Bon Secours Sisters hired a PR consultant who dismissed the findings in emails to journalists, writing, “If you come here you’ll find no mass grave… a local police force casting their eyes to heaven and saying, ‘Yeah, a few bones were found — but this was an area where famine victims were buried. So?’”

Catherine Corless, who revealed that remains of nearly 800 dead infants from a mother and baby home in Tuam, Ireland, were unaccounted for and likely buried in a mass grave, points on a map at her home outside Tuam on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)

But Corless had the death records. She had the maps. She had the courage. Her account held up.

Then-Prime Minister Enda Kenny condemned the treatment of the children as “a chamber of horrors.” A test excavation in 2017 confirmed the presence of children’s remains in the septic tank.

Pope Francis, during his 2018 visit to Ireland, publicly apologised for the church’s role in systemic abuse, including the mother and baby homes.

More than a decade after Corless began her search, the long-delayed excavation has begun. A team led by Daniel MacSweeney — formerly with the International Committee of the Red Cross — is now tasked with recovering and identifying the remains.

“We cannot underestimate the complexity of the task before us,” MacSweeney said, noting the age of the remains, the overlap of bones, and scant historical documentation.

The process is expected to take at least two years. Nearly 100 people, including descendants from the UK, US, Canada, and Australia, have submitted or are preparing to submit DNA samples in the hope of learning the fate of long-lost relatives.

Some locals argue the site — now a quiet garden with a Virgin Mary statue — should be left undisturbed. But survivors and families insist on dignity, justice, and truth.

A week before the dig began, survivors and relatives made one last visit to the site. Beneath the grass where children once played — and under which children now lie — stood dumpsters, shipping containers, and an excavator.

“They were denied dignity in life, and they were denied dignity and respect in death,” Corrigan said, standing at the site of the dig. “So we’re hoping that today maybe will be the start of hearing them because I think they’ve been crying for an awful long time to be heard.”