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Gardai begin probe into 800 babies dumped in mass grave
By Adelina Campos
President Higgins calls for State inquiry as detectives finally begin to investigate the horrific discovery Gardai have launched an investigation into the mass baby grave scandal, it was revealed last night. Detectives have questioned two men who found bones on the site in Tuam, Co Galway, in 1975. They will now decide whether to launch a full criminal investigation into the dumping of the children’s bodies without proper burial or records. The move came as President Michael D Higgins said he was “appalled” by the revelations and called for a Government inquiry. Mr Higgins said: “My first reaction was of enormous sadness. These are children who while they were alive had rights, the rights to protection and who if dead had the right to be looked after with dignity. Time doesn’t remove any of those rights. “Now what is important is that of all questions provoked by this are answered adequately with the assistance of science and forensics. “The quicker we do this the better it is for our own understanding and of others of us abroad.” Gardai began their inquiries yesterday and will decide if the sickening controversy should be treated as a criminal matter. What must the world think of Ireland’s past? The Irish Daily Mirror can reveal that the two men who initially found bones on the site of the mother-and-baby home in Tuam, Co Galway, back in 1975, have already been questioned twice. Barry Sweeney was 10 years old when he and his pal Francis Hopkins came across the remains of what could possibly be up to 800 children who died at the Home. Barry, 48, told the Irish Daily Mirror: “Detectives came to see me on Thursday night and on Friday morning. “I told them what I remembered and also pointed out to them where I think the grave is. “They also interviewed Francis who found it with me when we were kids.” Mr Sweeney said he is haunted by what they uncovered that day. He added: “I have nightmares over it to this day, and this has brought it all back. There was a hollow concrete slab and we thought: ‘Jesus, what’s sitting in there?’ “We broke it in half and pulled it across, and underneath it, in a deep pit, there were lots of bones. "There were no coffins or pieces of clothing or anything, just bones. Now I hear that there could be 800 children buried there. I don’t know what to think, it’s horrible. “From what I saw when I was 10, it didn’t look like there could be 800 but that was only one area, I guess. And we were so scared when we found them, we ran off. “We told the first people we met about it. Three or four days later we went back and it was still open with bones there for anyone to see. “I was told later a priest had gone to bless it and that it was covered up but I don’t know any more than that. Nowadays I tried to avoid walking around there.” Galway East TD and Tuam native Colm Keaveney on Friday called for the site to be closed and the State Pathologist called in. He said: “We need the Taoiseach to take a strategic leadership role in bringing together all Departments and State agencies with an interest in this, so we can establish the facts and take decisive action as quickly and thoroughly as possible. “This is not a political debate. It’s about justice. I have received many calls from people wanting to testify about what they saw and lived through at the Tuam mother-and-baby home. It would be wrong not to take the testimony of these people. “Not only would it be cathartic for them but it would help us understand the violations of human and children’s rights in that dark environment. “They should be heard, understood and believed. The whole country is at a loss because we haven’t grasped the full extent of this issue yet.” The formal Garda inquiry comes days after local historian Catherine Corless revealed there were no burial records for 796 children who had died between 1925 and 1961 at the Tuam Home. Her research indicates the remains of these children, from infants to nine-year-olds, are located in a sceptic tank on the site that was identified by Mr Sweeney nearly 40 years ago. On Friday, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald confirmed gardai were involved in the Government review and it would be up to them to decide if a criminal investigation should take place. She said: “It is very important that we address these disturbing issues as sensitively as possible. "Coverage over the last few days will have inevitably evoked very painful memories for people, many of whom are now quite elderly.” A number of groups have criticised the former Children’s Minister for not looking sooner into mother-and-baby homes. Paul Redmond of Adoption Rights Now! told the Irish Daily Mirror he had met Ms Fitzgerald on July 23 last year to discuss the disturbingly high children mortality rates in homes run by nuns. He said: “When I handed our research to the Minister, I explained that the most important part was the high mortality rates of children. “When she had the document in her hand, I said: ‘Minister, children were murdered.’ “She assured me that she would treat the matter seriously and would be reading my report that evening. I never heard anything about it again – not until the Tuam grave became an international scandal.” Amnesty Ireland chief Colm O’Gorman said their research in 2011 found the Government had overlooked concerns about mother-and-baby homes and vaccine trials. Mr O’Gorman said: “These were two issues where we identified gaps in State investigation into alleged past abuses. The other that we flagged was the Magdalene Laundries. “We would still assert the Government has failed to put in place a proper independent investigation into what happened in the Magdalene Laundries.” And last night it was warned there could be countless more unmarked graves as Ireland has a dark history of burying unbaptised babies in “unholy” ground. The practice was very common in the West, possibly a relic of the Great Famine, as thousands flocked to “coffin ships”, hoping to make it to America. The national archives show there are 1,399 children’s burial grounds across the country – 1,270 of which are in the West. In Galway, there are 479 – almost double any other county. The next highest are Kerry – 260, Mayo – 218, Clare – 136 and Roscommon – 88. Most counties have fewer than 10, many have just two. There are also areas of cemeteries used for the purpose but not specified as such. Many of the graves date back centuries. Several grounds are described as being “Associated with a ‘Nunnery’” or “within the vicinity of a church”. At Pollboy in Ballinasloe, the tomb is “not enclosed [by a graveyard] and only unbaptised children are buried there”. Dr Nyree Finlay, a senior lecturer in Archeology at the University of Glasgow, told the Irish Mirror: “The sites are often related to post-Reformation belief systems, in terms of the unbaptised child being in ‘Limbo’. “These often include remains from ‘deviant deaths’ in terms of suicides, shipwrecks, strangers and people with different belief. “Ways in which people buried them are often concealed.” Asked if it was likely there were more graves such as the one in Tuam, Dr Finlay replied: “Yes, absolutely.”
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