At least 1,000 people gathered for a silent vigil in Tuam this afternoon in honour of the memory of all those who died in the Mother and Baby Home.
Those gathered in Tuam assembled at the Town Hall and made the walk from there to the site of the former Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home where 796 children and buried.
The vigil took place as the Pope said mass in Phoenix Park at the end of the World Meeting of Families.
The names of all 796 children who died at the Home were read aloud, along with those of the ten women who died there.
Baby shoes were laid out on the ground along with candles in a heartbreaking memorial.
Such a moving picture of the remberance in the Tuam mother and baby home. #Stand4Truth #PopeInIreland pic.twitter.com/3EOT7Rnt5b
— Áine Nì Chléirigh (@Clarke3Anne) August 26, 2018
The vigil was organised by a Manchester woman whose sister vanished from a mother and baby home.
Some activists dressed up as crime scene investigators staged a protest at the site of the mother and baby home by installing crime scene tape around, calling for a full investigation.
Activists @IzzyKamikaze and Sadie Cramer install a 'crime scene' tape at the site of the #Tuam mother and baby home in Galway. They are calling for a full investigation and burial of the over 800 children's remains. #Stand4Truth @PA pic.twitter.com/cwzPJhJrw2
— Niall Carson (@niallcarsonpa) August 26, 2018
Pope Francis was in Knock earlier today, and while he brought up the rampant abuse of children that was carried out and covered up by members of the church, no mention of Tuam was made.
Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone is understood to have raised the events of Tuam with Pope Francis when she met him yesterday.
Thousands more gathered in Dublin today for a Stand4Truth event in solidarity with all the victims of abuses by the Church including mother and baby homes, Magdalene laundries, illegal adoptions, and the horrific sexual abuse of children.
The gathering took place next to the Garden of Remembrance at Parnell Square.
During his papal mass at Phoenix Park today, Pope Francis spoke of many of the abuses committed by the members of the clergy and asked for forgiveness.
