Mass graves discovered under former Catholic orphanage in Ireland

A commission investigating the treatment of unmarried mothers and children in Irish care homes have discovered a mass grave containing the remains of babies and young children at a former Catholic orphanage in Ireland.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes announced on Friday that it has found "significant quantities of human remains" in an underground structure at the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, County Galway.

The discovery confirms decades of suspicion that the majority of children who died at the home have been buried in unmarked graves.

DNA analysis put the ages of the selected remains between 35 fetal weeks to three years old. The results of radiocarbon tests indicated that the remains dated from between 1925 and 1961. The home was closed down in 1961, according to the Associated Press.

The causes of death remain unknown, but previous reports have noted the high levels of infant mortality rates in the homes due to disease and other natural causes.

The investigation was launched in 2014 when Catherine Corless, a local Tuam historian, tracked down death certificates of nearly 800 children, but only found a burial record for one child. She noted that in the mid-1970s, there were local boys who reported seeing a pile of bones in a hidden underground chamber.

The probe will now focus on why the remains were not buried in traditional graves and whether the deaths were reported to the proper authorities at the time.

The Bon Secours Sisters order of nuns, which ran the home, vowed to cooperate with the continuing investigation. The order said in a statement that all its records, including of potential burials, had been handed over to the authorities in 1961.

Corless decried the Bon Secours response as "the usual maddening nonsense." She called on the religious order to apologize and take responsibility for what happened at the home.

Katherine Zappone, Ireland's minister for children and youth affairs, said that the discovery of the mass grave was "very sad and disturbing."

"Today is about remembering and respecting the dignity of the children who lived their short lives in this home," said Zappone. "We will honor their memory and make sure that we take the right actions now to treat their remains appropriately," she added.