Work being to exhume remain of 800 dead babies at unwed mother’s home
In 2014, the now 71-year-old produced evidence that 796 children, from newborns to a nine-year-old, died at Tuam’s mother and baby home.
Her research pointed to the children’s likely final resting place: a disused septic tank discovered in 1975.
“There are no burial records for the children, no cemetery, no statue, no cross, absolutely nothing,” said Corless.
It was only in 2022 that legislation was passed in parliament enabling the excavation work to start at Tuam.
“It’s been a fierce battle, when I started this nobody wanted to listen, at last we are righting the wrongs,” said Corless.
“I was just begging: take the babies out of this sewage system and give them the decent Christian burial that they were denied,” she added.
In findings published in 2021, the Commission of Investigation found “disquieting” levels of infant mortality at the institutions
Women pregnant outside of wedlock were siloed in the so-called mother and baby homes by society, the state and the Catholic church, which has historically held an iron grip on Irish attitudes.
After giving birth at the homes, mothers were then separated from their children, often through adoption.
