by Zara Mustapha

Almost 800 babies are believed to have been buried in a mass grave in Ireland, in a septic tank next to a home for the children of unmarried mothers.

According to new research, looking at child death records has led to a conclusion that the bodies of hundreds of infants may have been placed in the tank at a former home run by the Catholic nuns in Tuam, County Galway.

The children were believed to have all died from sicknesses or diseases between 1926 and 1961. The building has since been pulled down years ago and has been replaced with a housing estate.

The finding of the mass grave was revealed following a research by local woman Catherine Corless.

Mirror News reports:

Records suggest the home’s septic tank was converted especially for the purpose of disposing of bodies, and bones were first found in 1975 when cement covering the tank was pulled away.

But once Catherine began looking at all the children whose place of death was recorded as “Children’s Home, Tuam”, she uncovered the shocking numbers that could have been buried in the mass grave.

She told the Daily Mail: “There was just one child who was buried in a family plot in the graveyard in Tuam. That’s how I am certain there are 796 children in the mass grave. These girls were run out of their family home and never taken back, so why would they take the babies back to bury them, either?”

She is now calling for a permanent memorial on the spot listing the names of all those who died.

Ireland’s minister for education and skills Ciaran Cannon said the new details emerging were “horrific” and that an inquiry was needed to establish what had happened.