A MOTHER and Baby Home survivor has said 'the worst is yet to come' as the numbers of deaths at homes in Ireland could be up to 8,000.
Paul Redmond, a survivor of the Castlepollard Home and Chairperson of Coalition of Mother and Baby Home Survivors made the claims on RTÉ's Morning Ireland this morning, March 6.
Mr Redmond's comments come in the wake of the findings at the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co. Galway last Friday, March 3.
Catherine Corless was working on a local history project when she began researching the St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, a maternity home for unmarried mothers and their children, and obtained death certificates for 796 children that had died at the home. (Picture: Laura Hutton/RollingNews.ie)In 2012 Tuam historian Catherine Corless was working on a local history project when she began researching the St Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, a maternity home for unmarried mothers and their children.
In the course of her research, Corless obtained death certificates for 796 children that had died at the home.
But contrary to the number of death certs, there were only official burial records for two children.
This morning, Mr Redmond told RTÉ that the CMABS group had carried out similar research to Ms Corless into unregistered deaths from Mother and Baby Homes across the country and said the findings at the Tuam Home are "only the tip of the iceberg."
"None of our community were surprised, we've known about this for years," he said.
"This is only the tip of the iceberg, the worst is yet to come.
"Some other activists and I have done research at Castlepollard Home and the Bethenny Homes survivors have done it.
"At Castlepollard we're up to 203 unregistered deaths at the moment, and we've got a couple of years to go but we don't expect that number to go beyond 206 or 207.
"We've taken a different route of going after the Castlepollard Ledgers with Freedom of Information requests, and we have another 77 still birth deaths confirmed over its 24 out of 36 year history.
Mr Redmond then said across the nine Mother and Baby homes to be investigated, Tuam is only the fifth largest.
"The further back [in years] the higher the mortality rates. St Patrick's Home on the Navan Road in Dublin opened in 1904 and children were dying there at the same rate as Tuam with two deaths a week so the bare minimum figure [for deaths] is 2,500 for St Patrick's alone.
"Across the nine mother and baby homes, I believe the figure to be around seven to 8,000," he said.
The Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation released a statement about the findings of test excavations at the site on Friday, March 3.
'Significant quantities'
The Commission, which had carried out three test excavations at the site since 2015, said the first test had “identified a particular area of interest” after a number of anomalies were considered worthy of further investigation.
In further test excavations in November 2016 and January 2017, test trenches were dug revealing two large structures.
One structure, the Commission said, appeared to be a “large sewage containment system, or a septic tank,” which had been decommissioned and filled with rubble and covered with soil.
The second structure, however, is a long structure divided into 20 chambers, 17 of which contained “significant quantities of human remains.”
The Commission said: “A small number of remains were recovered for the purpose of analysis.
“These remains involved a number of individuals with age-at-death ranges from approximately 35 foetal weeks to 2-3 years.
“Radiocarbon dating of the samples recovered suggest that the remains date from the timeframe relevant to the operation of the Mother and Baby Home.”
The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home operated from 1925 to 1961, and the Commission said “a number of the samples are likely to date from the 1950s.”
“The Commission is shocked by this discovery and is continuing its investigation into who was responsible for the disposal of human remains in this way,” a statement said.
The Coroner has been informed and further scientific tests are being carried out.
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katharine Zappone said while it was “disturbing” it was not unexpected.
“This is very sad and disturbing news. It was not unexpected as there were claims about human remains on the site over the last number of years.
“Up to now we had rumours. Now we have confirmation that the remains are there, and that they date back to the time of the Mother and Baby Home, which operated in Tuam from 1925 to 1961.”
The Minister said her Department had brought together all of the key Departments and agencies to set out a way forward.
This will include post mortem practices and procedures, and reporting and burial arrangements for residents of Mother and Baby Homes.
The Minister also said there will be an information line for factual information, and a service for those who feel personally affected by the news.
“Today is about remembering and respecting the dignity of the children who lived their short lives in this Home,” Minister Zappone added.
“We will honour their memory and make sure that we take the right actions now to treat their remains appropriately.”
