The Commission said that it was shocked by the discovery, and that it would continue its investigation into who was responsible for the disposal of human remains in this way.

Carbon dating confirmed that the remains date from the time the home was operated by the Bon Secours order.

Excavations carried out between November 2016 and February 2017, that had been ordered by the Commission, found a significant quantity of human remains, aged from 35 foetal weeks to two to three years, interred in 'a vault with twenty chambers'. The Home was investigated by the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation, a statutory commission of investigation under Judge Yvonne Murphy. Corless estimated that nearly 800 children had died at the home. Corless' research led her to conclude that almost all had been buried in an unmarked and unregistered site at the Home, and the article claimed that there was a high death rate of residents. In 2014, Anna Corrigan uncovered the inspection reports of the home, which noted that the most commonly recorded causes of death among the infants were congenital debilities, infectious diseases and malnutrition (including marasmus-related malnutrition). Separately in 2012, a local historian, Catherine Corless, published an article documenting the history of the home before she uncovered the names of the children who died in the home the following year. However, subsequent research discovered files relating to just 36 illegal foreign adoptions from the home. In 2012, the Health Service Executive raised concerns that up to 1,000 children had been sent from the Home, for the purpose of illegal adoptions in the United States, without their mothers' consent. Unmarried pregnant women were sent to the Home to give birth.

The Home was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a religious order of Catholic nuns, that also operated the Grove Hospital in the town. The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home (also known as St Mary's Mother and Baby Home or simply The Home) that operated between 19 in the town of Tuam, County Galway, Ireland, was a maternity home for unmarried mothers and their children. View of the mass grave at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, Tuam, County Galway

My Name Is Bridget by Alison O'Reilly