Committee and Sisters meet over unmarked mass grave

A MEETING was to take place last evening (Tuesday) between the Bon Secours Sisters and members of the Children’s Home Graveyard Committee regarding a planned memorial at the unmarked children’s graveyard in Tuam.
Up to 800 children and babies are buried in the mass grave on Dublin Road close to the site of the former mothers’ and babies’ home which was run by the Bon Secours Sisters  in Tuam between 1925 and 1961.
As frequently reported in The Tuam Herald, for the past two years a local committee has been researching the plot and historian Catherine Corless from Brownsgrove found that death records show that at least 796 children died and were buried at the home.
Galway East TD Ciaran Cannon has called for a Dáil inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the unmarked burial site.
Chairperson of the memorial committee Teresa Killeen Kelly says while the story has caught the attention of the national media and politicians have spoken of their shock, the committee’s  priority remains to have dignity restored to the dead babies by having a plaque with their names erected at the site.
“We have commissioned a bronze plaque with the names and this will cost at least €6,500. There is other work that has to be done to improve access to the site. The minimum we need is €15,000 but we’re nowhere close to that at the moment,” she said.

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