Tuam

Tuam (/ˈtjuːəm/ TEW-əm), Irish: Tuaim ([t̪ˠuəmʲ]), is the second largest settlement in County Galway, Ireland. It is situated west of the midlands of Ireland, and north of Galway city. Human existence in the area dates to the Bronze Age while the historic period dates from the 6th century. The town became increasingly important in the 11th and 12th centuries in political and religious aspects of Ireland. The market based layout of the town and square indicates the importance of commerce.

History

The record of human settlement in Tuam dates back to the Bronze Age when an area adjacent to Shop Street was used as a burial ground. The name Tuam is a cognate with the Latin term tumulus (burial mound). The town's ancient name was Tuaim Dá Ghualann, i.e. the burial mound of two shoulders.

The name probably refers to the high ground on either side of the River Nanny, overlooking a probable fording point over the River Nanny (or Corchra). In 1875, a Bronze Age burial urn was discovered in the area by workmen, dating from c.1500 B.C. An early glass photograph still exists.

Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home

Coordinates: 53°30′28″N 8°50′34″W / 53.50765°N 8.84291°W / 53.50765; -8.84291

The Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, St Mary's Mother and Baby Home, or simply The Home, was a maternity home for unmarried mothers and their children that operated between 1925 and 1961 in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland. It gained notoriety due to allegations in 2014 of the apparent burial of up to 800 children's bodies in a mass grave on the site, and the high death rates of its residents. This is now the subject of a judicial inquiry.

The Home was run by the Bon Secours Sisters, a Catholic religious order of nuns. Unwed pregnant women were sent to the Home to give birth. Some of the poorer women were afterwards forced to work without pay, in reimbursement for some of the services rendered. They were separated from their children, who remained separately in the Home, raised by nuns, until they could be adopted - often without consent.

In 1975, two local boys had found a chamber filled with children's skeletons on the site. Some local people speculated it was a grave for Great Famine victims or unbaptised babies. In 2012, local historian Catherine Corless published an article documenting the deaths of 796 babies and toddlers at the Home during its decades of operation, primarily from infectious diseases and marasmus-related malnutrition. Her research led her to conclude that almost all had been buried in an unmarked and unregistered mass grave at the Home, some of them in a septic tank. Some sources questioned whether the bones found in 1975 were from the Bon Secours Home or from one of the previous institutions which had occupied the same building, as well as whether or not the structure Corless speculated was a mass grave was a disused septic tank or a 19th-century burial vault.

The Late Show

The Late Show may refer to:

The Late Late Show

The Late Late Show, with its title often shortened to The Late Late, is an Irish chat show. It is the world's second longest-running chat show, after the American The Tonight Show. Perceived as the official flagship television programme of Ireland's public service broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), it is regarded as an Irish television institution (even abroad) and is broadcast live across two hours plus in front of a studio audience on Friday nights between September and May at 21.30.

Having maintained the same name and format continuously, The Late Late Show was first broadcast on Friday, 6 July 1962 at 23.20 and in colour from 1976. Originating as temporary summer filler for a niche Saturday night audience (airing at 23.30), it later moved to its current home on Friday night schedules. The format has remained largely the same throughout—dialogue, comic sketches, musical performances, discourse on topical issues. It has influenced attitudes of the populace towards approval or disapproval of its chosen topics, directed social change and helped shape Irish societal norms. It averages 650,000 viewers per episode and has consistently achieved RTÉ's highest ratings.