Irish horror house where nearly 800 babies were experimented on reveals remains of 22 more infants

Ireland's infamous mother and baby house of horrors has yielded the remains of 22 more infants. The excavation team in Tuam, County Galway, has found 99 corpses since the excavations started in July last year. The remains were found in coffins on the south-western edge of the site. Documents describe it as a "burial ground". The grim findings will be cleaned and examined at a mortuary and laboratory in Toghermore. Experts say that the discovery of so many corpses shows that there are a lot more of them. The number could be as high as 800.

The remains were unearthed by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (ODAIT), which will use radiology and 3D scanning to find out more about their lives, deaths, age and sex. ODAIT said, "These details may narrow the number of possible matching individuals and help to connect a skeletal individual with a name." Dr Niamh McCullagh, Senior Forensic Consultant, told ITV News, "the remains are so concentrated" in this place, which appears to be a burial ground, that "we expect to find more."

The home first gained prominence in 2014. Local historian Catherine Corless found 796 death certificates for babies and young children, but no burial records. The area was checked, and test excavations were carried out at the Mother and Baby Home site in 2017. This confirmed that human remains were present on the property, specifically where a septic tank used to be.

Girls who got pregnant out of wedlock were tortured at the institution

This institution was part of a network of homes where pregnant, unmarried girls were sent to give birth. They were abused emotionally and physically, forced into unpaid labour, and lived in bad conditions. The babies were forcibly taken away from them, most of whom didn't survive, dying of malnutrition and diseases that could have been treated. They were also subjected to medical experiments, such as vaccine trials. According to the death records, on average two babies died a week.

The Bon Secours Sisters ran the institution on behalf of Galway County Council from 1925 to 1961 when it was shut down. The site was covered in asphalt and gravel and used as a driveway in the following years, according to ODAIT. The agency said that 62 people have submitted their DNA to be tested against the remains.