Former burial site of Bon Secours nuns won't be touched in hospital transformation, says HSE

PLANS to transform the old Grove hospital once owned by the Bon Secours nuns in Tuam won't include any work at a former nuns' burial site, according to the HSE.

While excavation works will be carried out as part of the redevelopment of the old Grove hospital which is being turned into a Community Mental Health facility, the plot to the rear of the site, where it's thought babies were also buried at the foot of nuns' graves, won't be touched.
The HSE has been granted planning permission to develop the delapidated hospital building but fears that the development may interfere with possible baby remains on adjoining land were highlighted in an appeal lodged with An Bord Pleanala earlier this year.

In a statement to The Tuam Herald the HSE said: "The HSE is not planning to carry out an archaeological investigation or overground scan of the garden, graveyard area as this area is outside the redline boundary of the proposed Community Mental Health Centre site."

Read the full story in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald