The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, also known as St Mary's, or simply the Home, operated in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland, from 1925 to 1961 as a Catholic-run institution for unmarried mothers and their children, on behalf of Galway County Council. Run by the Bon Secours Sisters, the Home became the focus of national scandal after historian Catherine Corless uncovered that 796 infants and children had died there, many of whom were reported to be buried in an unmarked mass grave within a former septic tank. Subsequent investigations identified high infant mortality, allegations of illegal adoptions, and systemic neglect. A 2017 excavation confirmed the presence of juvenile remains, prompting a state apology and legislation enabling full exhumation. Preparatory forensic work began in 2023, and full excavation commenced in July 2025 to recover, identify, and rebury the remains in a dedicated memorial garden at the Tuam site.
The revelations surrounding the Tuam home sparked widespread public outrage, international media coverage, and renewed scrutiny of Ireland's history of institutional abuse. Survivors, advocacy groups, and political figures called for accountability and transparency, leading to state investigations, formal apologies, and reforms addressing past practices within religious‑run facilities.
History
Between 1925 and 1961 in Tuam, a town in County Galway, the Bon Secours Sisters ran a facility known locally as "The Home", officially St Mary's Mother and Baby Home, on behalf of Galway County Council. It was an institution where thousands of unmarried pregnant women gave birth. The building had previously served as a workhouse and later as a military barracks.
Workhouse and military barracks The building that eventually became "The Home" was originally built in 1841 as a workhouse under the Irish Poor Laws, intended to house destitute people during the Great Famine. Like many other workhouses, it was designed by Poor Law Commissioners' architect George Wilkinson to accommodate about 800 people. The workhouse opened in 1846, five years after construction was completed, during the height of the Famine. In addition to dormitories, the main building included an infirmary and what was then referred to as an "idiots' ward", reflecting the terminology of the period. Sheds were constructed on the property to house additional inmates and fever victims, and a fever hospital was later built next door. After the Famine, the workhouse continued to house the poor and homeless for more than 60 years.
In 1916, during the Easter Rising, British troops occupied the workhouse, evicted its residents, and repurposed the building as a barracks. Seven years later, during the Irish Civil War, six anti-Treaty IRA volunteersSeamus Ó Máille, Martin Moylan, John Newell, John McGuire, Michael Monaghan, and Frank Cunnanewere imprisoned and executed at the site by Irish Free State forces on 11 April 1923, followed by two others in the weeks that followed. These executions were among the final carried out during the conflict. When the Sisters later assumed control of the building, they erected a crucifix in memory of the executed men.
Mother and Baby Home The order of Bon Secours Sisters, led by Mother Hortense McNamara, took over the Tuam Workhouse in 1925 at the request of the local authority and converted it into "The Home". This followed the closure of all workhouses in County Galway by the Board of Health, and the transfer of the hospital wing from Glenamaddy Workhouse to Tuam.Corless, page 5
Unmarried women who became pregnant were sent to give birth there, rather than at home or in hospital. The sisters may have included trained nurses,Corless, p.6 but were extremely unlikely to have been midwives, as the Papal prohibition on nuns attending births remained in place until 1936. In 1927, the Board of Health directed that a maternity ward be added so that mothers could be housed separately from the general wards; this was built in 1929. The women were required to remain in the Home for one year, performing unpaid labour for the Sisters as reimbursement for services rendered. They were separated from their children, who were raised in the institution until they could be adoptedoften without maternal consent.
Some women who had experienced two pregnancies outside marriage were sent directly to nearby Magdalene laundries after giving birth, as punishment for their perceived "recidivism", a term euphemistically used to describe repeated sexual transgression. Historian Maria Luddy notes that, "Such a stance, though not intended to be penal, allowed for the development of an attitude that accepted detention as a means of protecting society from these reoffending women."
The County Council paid the nuns £1 per week for each mother and for each child in the Home. (In 1949, average female earnings were £2.97 per week; a loaf of bread cost three pence, and a stone of potatoes (6.35 kg) cost 14 pence).
At the end of the year, the mothers left while their babies were typically kept at the Home.Corless, p.7 The children remained until they could be adopted, fostered, or were old enough to be sent to industrial boarding schools.Corless, pp.7, 14 Contemporary concerns were voiced in The Tuam Herald, which reported in October 1953 that "an effort was not always made to find the home that most suited the child or the child that most suited the home. The allowance given to foster parents was not always spent on the child's welfare."Corless, p.9 Local historian Catherine Corless documented a case in which a mother, having found work in England, paid the nuns to care for her son. Unbeknownst to her, the child had been fostered out, while the nuns continued to accept her payments.Corless, p.11 Some babies were sent to clergy in the United States for adoption by Catholic families, often without maternal consent or legal oversight.
A 1947 inspection by the Department of Local Government and Public Health found that some children at the Home were suffering from malnutrition, with 12 of the 31 infants examined described as "emaciated and not thriving". The Home was overcrowded, housing 271 children and 61 mothers. Death rates were extraordinarily high: 34 percent of children died in 1943; 25 percent in 1944; 23 percent in 1945; and 27 percent in 1946. The report noted: "The death rate amongst infants is high... The death rate had appeared to be on the decrease but has now begun to rise again. It is time to enquire into the possible cause before the death rate mounts higher." Despite this, the inspector concluded: "The care given to infants in the Home is good, the Sisters are careful and attentive; diets are excellent. It is not here that we must look for cause of the death rate."
An inspection conducted in 1949 by Galway County Council reported that "everything in the home [was] in good order" and congratulated the Sisters on "the excellent condition of their Institution".
The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home closed in 1961, and most of the mothers and children remaining at the time were transferred to similar institutions, including Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea.Corless, pp.15-16 The building remained largely unused until its demolition in 1972, and a new housing estate was subsequently built on the site.
Mass grave 1975 find In 1975, two boys, Franny Hopkins and Barry Sweeney, aged 10 and 12, were playing at the site of the former Mother and Baby Home when they discovered an underground chamber beneath a concrete slab, reportedly "filled to the brim" with children's skeletons. One of them later recalled seeing around 20 skeletons. The slab was believed by some to have covered the Home's former septic tank. Local speculation at the time suggested the remains might belong to victims of the Great Famine, unbaptised infants,. or stillborn babies from the Home. The number of bodies was then unknown, but was assumed to be small. The chamber was re-sealed shortly afterwards, following prayers said at the site by a local priest. For the next 35 years, a local couple tended the site and constructed a small grotto in its memory.
2012 article In 2012, local historian Catherine Corless published an article about the Tuam Home in the annual Journal of the Old Tuam Society. In 2013, at Corless's requestand at her own expenseAnn Glennon, a registrar of births, deaths and marriages at the Galway Health Service Executive, retrieved the names of 796 children whose death certificates listed "The Tuam Home" or "Tuam Children’s Home" as the place of death. Most were infants who died during the Home's operation between 1925 and 1961.
Corless studied state-issued death certificates and found causes of death including tuberculosis, convulsions, measles, whooping cough, influenza, and malnutritionparticularly marasmus-related malnutrition. She then cross-referenced the names with local graveyard records and found that only two of the children had documented burials. Based on this, Corless concluded that the most plausible location for the remains was the site where skeletons had been discovered in 1975. Historical maps indicated that this area had once housed the Home's septic tank. Corless believed that some of the remains found were located within the tank itself. The burial ground was unmarked, unregistered, and undocumented; no official records were kept. The site was widely described by international media and commentators as a "mass grave".
Corless's conclusions were supported by some local residents who recalled seeing nuns and workmen apparently burying remains there late in the evenings. A similar discovery occurred in 2010, when researchers uncovered a mass grave in Dublin containing the remains of 222 infants from Bethany Home, a Protestant-run maternity and children's institution.
2014 media coverage In April 2014, Corless's research into the Tuam Mother and Baby Home gained wider public attention during the dedication of a memorial to the 222 children who died at Bethany Home. Corless has since campaigned for a similar grave marker to be placed at the Tuam site.
In late May and early June 2014, numerous news outlets reported on the alleged existence of a mass grave containing the remains of up to 800 infants at Tuam, based on Corless's research. The initial story was published by journalist Alison O'Reilly in the Irish Mail on Sunday, and was soon picked up by international media. The revelations provoked widespread outrage, both in Ireland and abroad.
The Irish government came under pressure to launch an investigation. The government called the allegations "deeply disturbing" and ordered the police to begin a preliminary investigation, with the aim of launching an inquiry.
Reaction to the reports After the issue received global attention in 2014, some commentators, in advance of official factfinding investigations, criticised the story and proffered alternative explanations for the presence of bodies in a septic tank. Some of their suggested explanations were not supported or were actively disproved by the subsequent 2017 Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation interim report, following excavations of the site.
Local Gardaí initially surmised that any bones on the site likely dated from the Great Famine in the 19th-century: "These are historical burials going back to famine times. There is no suggestion of any impropriety." Bones of famine victims had been found nearby in 2012, and archaeologists determined that they were 19th century "paupers" from the same Tuam Poor Law Union Workhouse which had originally occupied the building later used for the Bon Secours Children's Home. The Gardaí were later ordered to investigate and issue a report on their findings by the Minister for Justice.