A Catholic priest has said he does not believe babies were buried in sewage chambers at a Tuam mother and baby home run by nuns, even though a state inquiry has ordered an excavation to verify the existence of a mass grave.

“From the word go, I didn’t believe the story,” said Gerry Young, a curate in Greystones, Co Wicklow.

“I happened to have done a bit of study on how the church buried people. As soon as I heard this story about all these little bodies wrapped up on shelves, I thought, ‘Catacombs.’ We’ve always kept the dead with us.”

In a conversation live-streamed on YouTube with unsuccessful European election candidate Gemma O’Doherty, Young said: “There’s a whole generation of elitists in our country…