Remains of ten more infants recovered from Tuam mother-and-baby home, bringing total to 109
The forensic team excavating the former Tuam Mother and Baby Institution has recovered the remains of ten more infants, all in coffins, bringing the total number of individuals recovered to 109, the Director of Authorised Intervention Tuam said.
The remains of ten more infants have been recovered from the former Tuam Mother and Baby Institution site in County Galway, bringing the total number of individuals recovered to 109, the Director of Authorised Intervention Tuam (ODAIT) said in a technical update.
ODAIT’s Technical Update 9, published this week and covering the period to the end of September, says the remains were recovered under Tent 2, with evidence of coffins present in all ten cases. Recovery of all accessible institutional remains under Tent 2 is now complete, and the tent is being dismantled so a third tent can be erected, the report says. The remains of 32 infants have now been recovered from the Tent 2 location.
Under Tent 1, where 77 infants were previously recovered, no further excavations took place during the reporting period. In the subterranean chamber, all sediment recovered during excavation was sieved and sorted, and three adult teeth were found at the base of the chamber, which will now be analysed. Disarticulated remains of at least one infant had been recovered from the chamber in an earlier update.
The Westmeath Examiner, reporting the update, noted that the majority of remains excavated over the past year have been found in coffins. The recovered remains have been taken to the new forensic analysis facility at the HSE campus in Toghermore, outside Tuam, which opened in July. Excavation of the site known as the Memorial Garden has not yet started.
Historian Catherine Corless’s research found death records for 796 babies and infants who died at the home, which ran from 1925 to 1961, with no matching burial records. ODAIT said its Identification Programme team is continuing to work with families on the application process for DNA comparison.
Sources
- ODAIT: Technical Update 9 (odait.ie) — https://odait.ie/news/technical-updates/technical-update-9/
- Westmeath Examiner: “Remains of ten more infants recovered from Tuam site” (Oct 2, 2026) — https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/2026/10/02/remains-of-ten-more-infants-recovered-from-tuam-site/
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