'Shock horror'- Irish woman discovers her two baby brothers could be buried at Tuam site

An excavation is under way at the site of the former mother-and-baby home in Tuam in Co Galway, where 796 babies are believed to be buried.

So far, 50 families have handed in DNA to find answers after decades of waiting.

Joe Duffy on RTE's Live Line spoke to relatives of babies who were at Tuam at the time of their deaths and are believed to be buried at the mother-baby home.

A woman named Annette spoke to Joe Duffy about her mother who had a baby girl named Margaret at Tuam as a result of rape.

Annette said, "I met the team in January last year so I had a birds eye view of what the excavation will be....how complicated it is....".

Annette said that she is prepared for disappointment due to the difficulty of obtaining DNA from such small children..."babies from six months old....I am prepared that Margaret might never be found".

"We've been counting down days...a decade....never thinking it would happen...and today is the concrete proof it actually is."

"I had a dream that the baby would be found...identified and reunited with my mum.....I accept that is probably not going to happen but I now accept that I will be happy if all those children remain together, some will be claimed by family...they will be out of that terrible terrible place".

She said her mother would talk about the nuns, "where she was in Galway...described as one of the worst of the industrial schools....a very cruel brutal place."

"We were brought up as children hearing stories of the nuns...she was terribly traumatised and ill with damage."

Annette said her mother told her that a nun had kicked her while she was pregnant, which is something that she never forgot.

"They threw her out when the baby died...she came back to Galway and then made her way to Belfast where she met my dad and then went to England."

Annettes mother returned to Galway many years later and suffered from an episode of PTSD and ended up in psychiatric hospital from it.

Daniel McSweeney, director appointed by the government of authorised intervention in Tuam, on Live Line with Joe Duffy, said "this is really about the family and survivors because for them its really been a journey of searching for answers for a long time....it's a very challenging moment for them."

DNA samples were brought forward by 50 families so far ahead of the excavation.

A woman named Catherine told Joe Duffy that today is a wonderful day for her because "there are a lot of anxious relatives waiting....but at least it's happening...it's sad in a way but it's a great relief altogether...I'm quite pleased that this is happening at last."

"I started out with a simple message...there are 796 babies missing...the possibility is they are in that area....we have to get them out of there."

Another Irish woman waiting for answers is Anna Corrigan who believes she has two siblings buried "from unexplained circumstances" in Tuam.

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She became aware in 2012 of her two baby brothers when researching about her father.

"I had some inkling..about my mother having two children," Anna said.

"Shock...horror...I was raised an only child.....now I know," Anna told Live Line.

Anna had a brother John Desmond Dolan born in 1946 who died in 1947 of neglect and malnutrition in Tuam, even though he was born normal and healthy.

Her other brother William was born in 1950 and had no death certificate and no reason of death.

William was reported to have died in 1951.

The seven month old baby disappeared and was not on list of 796 babies.

Anna said that the excavation is "a light at the end of the tunnel" but also became "very traumatised," because she "spent ten years wearing armour and fighting and nothing...I took it off and I seen my wounds....it was a very very emotional day for me"