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I want to give the 796 children buried at Tuam their dignity and, if we can, an identity

I have taken what I learned in Lebanon and the Caucasus to Tuam; there are many similarities with the post-conflict missing-persons work

Catherine Corless at the site of Tuam mother and baby home. Photograph: Joe O’Shaughnessy

Daniel MacSweeney
Thu Mar 14 2024 - 05:45

I was appointed last year to recover – and where possible to identify and to rebury in a respectful and appropriate way – the children who were inappropriately buried at the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway.

The former mother and baby home made headlines in 2014 when local historian Catherine Corless uncovered the names of 796 babies who were buried in a disused septic tank between 1925 and 1961.

The Institutional Burials Act, which was signed into law in 2022, allowed for a director of authorised intervention to be appointed, and for the excavation of land associated with an institution.

A Cork native and a graduate of the University of Galway, I was working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Lebanon when I heard about Tuam. I was involved in the ICRC’s work to clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing people after the country’s civil war from 1975 to 1990.

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Most recently I was the ICRC envoy on missing people in the Caucasus region, focused on locating, identifying and returning to families the remains of people missing since the conflicts in the 1990s and 2008. There are many similarities between the post-conflict missing people work that the ICRC does and the Tuam intervention, and I apply the lessons learned from my ICRC experience in Tuam.

Since I started in Tuam in May, my goal as director of authorised intervention is to restore dignity in death and, where possible, an identity to the children inappropriately buried at the site of the former mother and baby home in the town. I am doing this work while keeping their families, the survivors of the Tuam institution and their advocates at its centre.

The wider Tuam community is also important to me. I meet TDs and county councillors from the area regularly, as well as local media and authorities. They want this work to be done correctly and I want to minimise the impact on Tuam residents. In this way, I’m focusing on keeping concerned groups and individuals informed, while I also explain my plans, understand their perspectives and adjust as I go to take account of concerns. The Irish people are also a key stakeholder in this and it is important that I explain the progress made and the challenges along the way.

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman also recently appointed the advisory board to provide advice and guidance. It is chaired by Dr Brian Farrell, Dublin District Coroner emeritus, and has now met twice. It includes representatives of families and home residents, technical experts and Galway County Council.

Identified remains will be returned to families, and, following consultation with families, unidentified remains will be buried and memorialised in a respectful manner. If we find evidence of violent or unnatural death, we will inform An Garda Síochána and the coroner

I find there are two questions that I get frequently asked.

The first, and by far the most common, is “When will you start the excavation?” And the second is: “Can I give a DNA sample?”

In the current preparation phase, my team and I are building the necessary foundations to deliver a project of unique complexity, difficulty and scale to international standards and best practice, as the Institutional Burials Act 2022 demands, while creating a new State body.

Sequencing is important. After preparation comes the recovery phase, when we will recover human remains from the site. Once we begin to recover human remains, the analysis phase will start.

My team, together with Forensic Science Ireland, will forensically analyse these human remains with the objectives that include individualisation, identification (using information including DNA from families), memorialisation and respectful reburial. Recovery and analysis will run in parallel until the recovery phase ends.

The duration of this analysis phase will depend on the volume and complexity of remains recovered. Identified remains will be returned to families and, following consultation with families, unidentified remains will be buried and memorialised in a respectful manner. If we find evidence of violent or unnatural death, we will inform An Garda Síochána and the coroner. The analysis phase will also focus on establishing circumstances and cause of death where possible.

[ ‘Every little bone’: How 796 babies at Tuam’s mother and baby home will be exhumed ]

Oran Finegan, former head of forensics at the ICRC is managing our forensic programme. Finegan has worked on large-scale post conflict identification programmes with the United Nations and ICRC in the Balkans, Cyprus and elsewhere. Our senior forensic consultant in this start-up phase is forensic archaeologist Dr Niamh McCullagh, who led the expert technical group and did the only excavation of the Tuam site to date. She has worked on the recovery of the disappeared from the Troubles as well as for An Garda Síochána. We will hire a site team and a lab team (including forensic archaeologists, osteo-archaeologists and forensic anthropologists), a geneticist and a forensic odontologist to recover and analyse human remains.

Everyone wants to know when I will start the excavation, but before I can start, I need to progress with enabling groundworks, to allow it to begin safely. I also need to put in place an experienced site team and an IT system; find a laboratory premises; and have sufficient administrative and governance staff ready to respond.

When we have clarity on these we will discuss the work with Tuam residents who may be affected. I don’t want to name a date and make a promise I can’t keep. We are advancing on all of these issues and will start as soon as possible.

Under the legislation, DNA samples can be given only by “eligible family members” (defined as a close relative). This is done through an identification programme. I’m fully aware of the urgency in getting it under way.

However, the legislation requires certain prior steps to be taken, including new regulations to support the programme. The department is currently finalising them, in consultation with the Data Protection Commission. There also has to be testing of a sample of recovered human remains to ensure that adequate DNA is available. And I need to launch a public information campaign to raise awareness and let people know how they can participate in the programme.

In the meantime, if a family member is not in a position to wait for the identification programme to begin, because of serious concerns about their age or health status, the Minister has put an administrative scheme in place. It allows for some samples to be taken now in exceptional cases, on a purely voluntary basis, so that they are available to be used to help identify remains from the Tuam site. I’m confident that together we can meet the complexity of this challenge, to deliver this project in accordance with international forensic standards and best practice, and to restore dignity to the children buried in Tuam.

Daniel MacSweeney is the director of authorised intervention for Tuam

To contact the office of the director of authorised intervention, Tuam, email info@dait.ie. See www.stafflinerecruit.com for recruitment opportunities including for a new head of communications

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