This article first appeared on Galway Bay FM

A four-week site set-up is getting underway this morning for the excavation of the Tuam mother-and-baby home.

That’ll include the set up of a 2.4m wooden wall around the site, installation of an office and storage facilities and the arrival of machinery and equipment.

The main works on what has been described as a complex excavation will then begin on July 14th.

The former home came to international attention over ten years ago following research carried out by local historian, Catherine Corless.

She discovered death certificates for 796 children and infants that had no burial records.

Her investigation shone a bright light into a dark chapter of local history, with investigators later confirming “significant quantities of human remains” in underground chambers.

Catherine Corless, whose investigation brought the site’s history to light, says it comes as a great relief: