Mass baby grave being exhumed in Tuam, Ireland

Only one stone wall remains of the old mother and baby home in this town, but it cast a shadow over all of Ireland.

A mass grave that could hold up to nearly 800 infants and young children — some in a defunct septic tank — is being excavated on the grounds of the former home run by the Bon Secours Sisters, an order of nuns.

The burial site forced Ireland and the Catholic Church to reckon with a legacy of having shunned unmarried mothers and separated them from their children, who were left at the mercy of a cruel system.

Two boys discovered the grave a half-century ago but the true horror was not known until a local historian began digging into the home's history.

Catherine Corless revealed that the site was atop a septic tank and that 796 deceased infants were unaccounted for. Her fin