Welcome to another week.
A documentary titled, “Missing Children” investigates the Tuam mother and baby home in Ireland where hundreds of babies’ remains were found in unmarked graves on the site.
The discovery sparked international public outrage, and calls for an investigation into the remains, and how they got there, led to the Irish government announcing a review.
It is estimated that 35,000 unmarried mothers gave birth in the home, and were then forced to leave their children behind knowing they would be put up for adoption at a time when being unmarried and pregnant was seen as unacceptable.
The remains have raised serious concerns about how the babies were treated in the home, with former residents and child welfare experts suggesting that the babies and children were so poorly looked after by staff at the home that the infants died of neglect, and their bodies then hidden in mass graves on the land.
Four years on from the discovery, the bodies of these children have still not been excavated.
The documentary follows the journeys of former residents at the mother and baby home, as they try to find out what happened to their families. It also includes an interview with the forensic archaeologist who was in charge of preparing the site for excavation and her concerns about the way the site has been treated since the discovery.
Missing Children aired yesterday on ITV at 10.20pm, and can be watched on repeat now.
The documentary will air again on RTE tomorrow, 9 November, at 10.15pm.
Many thanks to Alison O’Reilly, who shared this documentary on Twitter.
Additional links:
- Tuam timeline
- Ireland government’s final report on the home
- CBC News coverage (YouTube report) (Canada)
- Husband of Irish mother and baby home survivor says Church was like secret service
- ‘Four years on and still no action’: Call for Tuam mother and baby home site to be excavated
Researching Reform 