Timeline
A dated, sourced sequence of events. Each entry links to a source; where the exact date is uncertain, we say so.
St Mary's Mother and Baby Home opens in Tuam
The Children's Home run by the Bon Secours Sisters relocates from Glenamaddy to a former workhouse building in Tuam, County Galway, owned by Galway County Council and staffed by the Sisters under a capitation arrangement with the local authority.
Source: Final Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation (2020); Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, Wikipedia summary of published sources.
The home closes
Following a Department of Health decision, the home closes. Remaining residents are transferred to other institutions, including Sean Ross Abbey and several industrial schools.
Source: childrenshomes.org.uk historical record; BBC News timeline of controversy.
Building demolished; housing estate built on the site
The vacant building is demolished and a housing estate is later built on part of the site.
Source: Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, Wikipedia summary of published sources.
Local boys find human remains; the site is closed over and tended by a local family
Two boys playing on the site break open a concrete slab and find a chamber containing skeletal remains. A local family, the Dooleys, arrange for the county council to close the area over with clay, and themselves cut the grass, plant shrubs and roses, and put up a small cross, tending it, by more than one contemporaneous account, for years afterwards as a grave rather than treating it as an abandoned or unmarked site.
Source: Connacht Tribune, 13 February 2014 (see Document Library, TRP-021); corroborated independently by Catholic World Report, 24 June 2014 (TRP-026).
Catherine Corless's research becomes public
Local historian Catherine Corless compiles death registration records for children who died at the home, and finds no matching burial records, prompting national and international attention.
Source: cited as a catalyst for the Commission of Investigation in its Final Report (2020, para. 6).
International media reports the story, and some early claims are later corrected
Following Corless's research, Irish and then international media report in early June 2014 that around 800 children's remains had been found dumped in a disused septic tank on the site, presented as settled fact, before any excavation had taken place. On 7 June 2014, the Irish Times quotes Corless on record stating she never used the word "dumped" and that the reported certainty did not come from her. On 20 June 2014, the Associated Press issues a formal correction of its own 3 and 8 June reports, withdrawing claims that the children had been denied Catholic baptism and that this reflected Church teaching, after Tuam Archdiocese records showed the home had baptised more than 2,000 children; the AP also clarifies that, without excavation, it was not possible to know how many remains (if any) the tank contained.
Source: Irish Times, 7 June 2014 (see Document Library, TRP-029); Associated Press correction, 20 June 2014 (TRP-014).
BBC documentary features the Tuam site and Corless's research
BBC Two broadcasts "This World: Ireland's Lost Babies," presented by Martin Sixsmith, made in the wake of the film Philomena. It films the Tuam site and interviews Catherine Corless as part of a wider investigation into the Catholic Church's role in Ireland's mother-and-baby-home adoption system.
Source: BBC Two, "This World: Ireland's Lost Babies," 17 September 2014 (see Document Library, TRP-033).
Test excavation finds human remains
Following a 2015 stratigraphic survey, the Commission of Investigation carries out test excavations between November 2016 and February 2017. It finds two underground structures. In the second, a structure divided into 20 chambers of undetermined original purpose, which it says "appears to be related to the treatment/containment of sewage and/or waste water," significant quantities of human remains are found in 17 of the 20 chambers examined, with ages at death ranging from around 35 foetal weeks to two to three years.
Source: Commission of Investigation statement, 3 March 2017 (see Document Library, TRP-002).
Final Report published; State, Church and Bon Secours apologies issued
The Commission of Investigation publishes its Final Report on 30 October 2020 (released to the public in January 2021), covering 18 institutions. The Taoiseach issues a state apology on behalf of the State. On 12–13 January 2021, Archbishop Eamon Martin (Primate of All Ireland), Archbishop Michael Neary (Archbishop of Tuam), and the Sisters of Bon Secours also issue formal public statements apologising in connection with the report’s findings; the Sisters specifically acknowledge that infants and children who died at Tuam were buried in a “disrespectful and unacceptable way.”
Source: Final Report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation (TRP-001); Archbishop Eamon Martin statement, 12 January 2021 (TRP-012); Archbishop Michael Neary statement, 13 January 2021 (TRP-009); Sisters of Bon Secours apology, 13 January 2021 (TRP-008).
Corless testifies to the Oireachtas on the Burials Bill
Catherine Corless gives oral evidence to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration during pre-legislative scrutiny of the Certain Institutional Burials (Authorised Interventions) Bill. She describes her research and the 2017 findings, says she is "naively" disappointed that no exhumation followed, and calls for a DNA database and full inquests.
Source: Oireachtas Joint Committee on Children, Disability, Equality and Integration, official debate record, 14 April 2021 (see Document Library, TRP-032).
"The Missing Children" documentary airs on ITV and RTÉ
The documentary "The Missing Children" airs on ITV on 7 November and RTÉ One on 9 November, telling the stories of Tuam survivors with contributions from Catherine Corless. Brian Nugent later publishes a lengthy written rebuttal of the programme (see Claims & Evidence, Nugent's "ossuary" theory).
Source: RTÉ Player / ITVX, "The Missing Children," 2021 (see Document Library, TRP-031).
Institutional Burials Act passed
The Oireachtas passes legislation enabling full excavation, exhumation and, where possible, identification of remains at former mother and baby home sites, including Tuam.
Source: Institutional Burials Act 2022 (see Document Library, TRP-003).
Full forensic excavation begins
The Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT) begins full excavation of the site, expected to take around 24 months, with follow-up work potentially lasting years beyond that.
Source: ODAIT public updates, reported by IrishCentral and RTÉ.
99 sets of remains recovered; forensic facility opens
ODAIT's Technical Update 8 reports that 99 sets of infant remains have been recovered to date: 77 from an earlier-reported burial area (Tent 1), plus 22 newly recovered infants from a separate burial area (Tent 2). All of these recovered infants, in both areas, were found buried in coffins (mostly single-shouldered and painted white, per Technical Update 6), a distinct location and burial practice from the 20-chamber structure examined in 2016–17. ODAIT has also confirmed that part of this burial ground was later disturbed by a mechanical digger, sometime after 1977, and backfilled with debris. Separately, and distinct from the 20-chamber "memorial garden" structure examined in 2016–17 (which remains unexcavated), ODAIT excavated a different subterranean vaulted structure near this burial ground, believed to be part of a workhouse-era wastewater system, and found disarticulated bones from at least one infant (and separate adult bones) at the base of an access chamber, with no evidence they were intentionally placed there. A new forensic facility at Toghermore, built at a cost of roughly €4.1 million, opens to process recovered remains for identification, including DNA analysis (62 reference samples collected to date, from around 200 people who have come forward). As of this update, the memorial-garden area containing the 20-chamber structure examined in 2016–17 has still not been excavated.
Source: ODAIT Technical Update 8, 22 July 2026 (see Document Library, TRP-015), and Technical Update 6, 31 March 2026, for the coffin and disturbed-pit detail (TRP-018); RTÉ and The Journal reporting on the same update (TRP-010, TRP-011). This is the most recent verified update at the time of writing; check the Document Library for anything more recent.
Feature film on Corless's research opens in cinemas
The Lost Children of Tuam, a dramatised feature film based on Dan Barry's 2017 New York Times article of the same name, opens in Irish cinemas on 25 September 2026 (UK release in October), following its premiere and Best Irish Film award at the Galway Film Fleadh in July 2026. Directed by Frank Berry and written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, it stars Monica Dolan as Catherine Corless; Liam Neeson, who optioned the original article, is among its producers.
Source: RTÉ Entertainment, 6 August 2026; Volta Pictures and Screen Daily premiere coverage, July 2026. A note on scope: this is a dramatisation, not a source document, and is listed here for context rather than as evidence for any claim on this site.