Excavation at Irish site aims to recover remains of 800 children from church-run home

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Excavation at Irish site aims to recover remains of 800 children from church-run home  "Mother-and-baby homes" were institutions in Ireland where unmarried pregnant women and their children were housed. They were characterised by harsh conditions, high mortality rates and a lack of support for mothers and children.   READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/07/15/works-begin-in-ireland-to-exhume-remains-of-hundreds-of-babies-found-at-unwed-mothers-home  Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages

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00:01Work has begun at the site of a former church-run home for unmarried mothers in Ireland.

00:07To recover and identify the remains of around 800 children buried there.

00:11Shunned by their families, the women were sent here to give birth after becoming pregnant outside of marriage.

00:17It's been an emotional rollercoaster. We're almost a month into this emotional rollercoaster I've been on.

00:25Today I consider, I said it last week as well, it's a small light at the end of a very long tunnel.

00:31And hopefully Chum will be the expose. 9,000 children were listed as dead in the commission report.

00:41Chum is only the tip of the iceberg and I always believe if we can get Chum right, everything else should follow.

00:48Tens of thousands of Irish women were sent to so-called mother and baby homes during the 20th century.

00:54And were often forced to give up their children.

00:57The last of these nationwide institutions did not close until 1998.

01:03Work at the site in Galway is expected to take two years to complete.

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