Tuam families want DNA tests on babies

Relatives ‘are only ones who can make decision’

THE families of the Tuam babies have backed a proposal to carry out DNA tests on the children’s remains.

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone published a technical report yesterday on the Tuam mother-and-baby home, where it is claimed 796 children were buried in a mass grave by the Bons Secours nuns.

The report has given the Government five options on what the next steps for the grave should be. One option is to excavate and carry out DNA tests on the remains in order to identify them. It estimates this would cost up to €5million.

However, it notes ‘the impossibility of achieving positive DNA identification of infants and young juveniles without samples from living relatives’. It says ‘identification will be extremely difficult, and will depend on the quality of the remains recovered’.

The report said infants’ remains are less likely to be usable for DNA tests because the best source of DNA can be teeth, including the root. These are not sufficiently formed until the age of two years.

The findings come after a Commission of Inquiry was established following an exposé by The Irish Mail on Sunday on May 25, 2014. Our sister paper revealed how 796 children were buried in a septic tank at the home, which operated between 1925 and 1961, after historian Catherine Corless uncovered the names of the children.

Another option in yesterday’s report is the building of a memorial for the children, as well as having their remains reinterred elsewhere. However, the families of the children say they are the only ones who are entitled to decide on the grave’s future.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Anna Corrigan, whose brother John Desmond Dolan died in the home in 1947, said: ‘There is only one answer to this, and that is to take DNA from us, the families, because we want our relatives back.

‘There is no other option. They were separated from their family in life through no fault of their own, and they are not going to be separated in death.

‘The expert group are wrong in what they are saying in relation to finding it hard to identify bodies, especially the children under two, like John. We’ve consulted with a number of experts ourselves and have been told you can go in on [the] petrous bone of the skull, and that even infant bones should yield plenty of good quality DNA.

‘The families are the only ones who can decide on the future of the grave – no-one else. I don’t know why anyone else is even being asked. Everyone in the group is saying the same thing.’

Anna reported her brother’s death to gardaí in 2014 claiming he died by neglect, while her other brother William, who is marked as dead in the nuns’ ledgers, does not have a death certificate and is believed to have been adopted in the US.

Meanwhile, Minister Zappone has denied she is kicking the can down the road by sending out options for consultation, yet again, on the scandal.

Asked if she was delaying closure for many by farming out alternative proposals, and if it was an abdication of responsibility, Ms Zappone said: ‘I can absolutely assure you we will take a decision. Am I concerned that a consensus won’t develop? At the moment no, I’m not.’

However, an hour earlier she said on radio the various stakeholders had ‘diverse’ views.

She said she expected the consultation process to be completed by the end of March.

‘Identification will be difficult’ ‘We want our relatives back’