Photo: Ray Ryan

Memorial service at tuam babies home graveyard on hold

A MEMORIAL service planned for the children’s graveyard close to the site of the former Tuam Mothers and Babies Home has been put on hold until the terms of reference for the Commission of Investigation into such homes around the country have been published.
The investigation was announced by the Government following worldwide coverage of local research into the deaths and unmarked burial sites of 796 infants and children at the former home on Dublin Road.

More than €35,000 has been raised towards commemoration project and a plaque featuring the names of the hundreds of babies who died at the former home is also in the final stages of being made.
Questions have been asked regarding the circumstances surrounding the deaths recorded at the Tuam home and the unmarked burial site at the unofficial children’s graveyard on Dublin Road.
The Tuam home, which was run by the Bon Secours Sisters from 1925 to 1961, was the focus of mass media reports earlier this year based on research carried out last year by local woman Catherine Corless and the work of the Tuam Children’s Home Graveyard Committee.
Plans had been in place to hold a service in the graveyard towards the end of this month, however the committee has confirmed to The Tuam Herald that they’ve postponed this until the terms of reference are published.