Vigil to be held in Aughagower to remember Tuam Mother and Baby Home victims 

A VIGIL to remember the victims of Tuam Mother and Baby Home will be held in Aughagower this Sunday.

Seosamh Ó Maolchróin, a well-known local man who survived the mother and baby home, is inviting other survivors and members of the public to attend the secular ceremony, which will take place in the village at 11.30pm.

Catherine Corless – the historian and campaigner who helped reveal that hundreds of babies were buried in a septic tank near the infamous facility – will be among the attendees.

No ceremonies are being held at Tuam Mother and Baby Home due to the extensive ongoing excavation works at the site.

The facility was demolished in 1961 and is now the site of a housing estate.

Speaking to The Mayo News, Mr Ó Maolchróin welcomed the start of excavation works at the site. These works are aimed at identifying the remains of the 796 babies who were buried there between 1925 and 1961. Of these infants, at least 208 were from Mayo.

Babies who were born to Aughagower mothers at the home will also be remembered at Sunday’s ceremony.

“There’s no traces of the families from these areas in Aughagower,” said Mr Ó Maolchróin. “These mothers that have these babies might have died and their family knew nothing about them. That’s one of the reasons I’m doing it, because of this. I’ve been lucky that I survived, and I came out of there, plus other people. I like to keep their memory alive… them and their babies.”

Born in 1952, Mr Ó Maolchróin did not reunite with his birth mother until November of 2003, two years before she died. He spent the first six years of his life in Tuam Mother and Baby Home before being adopted in 1958.

Last April, he raised public awareness for the mother and baby home victims when he climbed Croagh Patrick seven times – once for every baby who died in Tuam the year he was born.

Mr Ó Maolchróin said he felt ‘ashamed’ to talk about his past until a group from Islandeady began the Light of Love memorial walk a few years ago.

He would like the cause of babies’ deaths to be investigated.

“One year, 50 babies died… There’s the wider question of ‘Why did they die?’,” he said.