Catherine Corless: Forensic team begins recovery of 800 children’s bodies from Tuam, Ireland

Forensic teams have begun the process of recovering nearly 800 bodies of children from an unmarked mass burial site at a former home for unmarried mothers.

Catherine Corless, a historian in Tuam, Ireland, spent years collecting the death certificates and church records of the former Mother and Baby Institution.

She documented 796 children who died there, many of which did not have their deaths recorded in burial logs.

Catholic nuns ran the institution, which housed women who had been shunned by their families after becoming pregnant outside of marriage.

Such “homes” are now well-documented as being oppressive and misogynistic, with records showing a pattern of unwed Irish mothers being forced into hard labour, CBS News reported.

After a child was born at the home, they were usually