185. The Tuam 796
Who Did What Now
Katie Charlwood
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 17 March 2026
⏱️ 93 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
in 1975 two boys are playing out by the ruins of the old Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway, ireland. They find a hole filled with very small bones. They tell everyone what tehy find and it is assumed that this is a famine grave. It's sealed up and ignored for 40 years until someone starts questioning what happened to the 796 children that died in The Home. Get ready for a very Irish scandal.
Hosted by Katie Charlwood
Donate at:
Beacons (at the bottom of the page)
Follow me on…
Fan Mail:
Katie Charlwood
C/O The Postal Store
Unit 11A
Forte Retail Park
Letterkenny
Co. Donegal
Ireland
F92 DY22
Business Enquiries: katie@whodidwhatnowpod.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, delicious friends and welcome to Who Did What Now, the History Podcast that is Not Your History Class, with me your host, Katie Charlwood, |
| 0:22.5 | History Harlet and Reader of Books. And welcome to today's episode, which is on day of release, |
| 0:28.6 | out on St. Patrick's Day, which seemed fitting. I am heading out to the local parade today |
| 0:33.8 | because at least one of the kiddos will be in it and also we have to support local. |
| 0:38.3 | Now if you are from Ireland you have definitely heard of today's piece of horrible history and if you are out with Ireland you may have also heard it too. |
| 0:48.3 | It kind of blew up like 10 years ago it was, really big deal. And there was a lot of |
| 0:56.1 | humming and horn, and it didn't really get told. And again, we still don't know all the answers, |
| 1:00.4 | but, but today I am here to talk about the Chum 796. Which is why there was considerably |
| 1:08.0 | less jibber jibber this episode, but yes, I am anyway going to quit my jibble jibble. |
| 1:12.3 | In fact you, in fact you, I will, but first we have to get our source on. |
| 1:18.2 | Our sources are the Truman Home Survivals Network. |
| 1:24.0 | The abnormal flight, the migration and repatriation of Irish Unmarried Mothers by Paul Michael Garrett. |
| 1:31.6 | Chewim Babies and Kerry Babies by Mary Burke. |
| 1:35.5 | Mother and Baby Homes by Podrick McCarthy. |
| 1:39.4 | Republic of Shame by Kaelan Horgan. |
| 1:43.0 | And of course we have articles from The Journal, the Irish Times, the Irish Mail on Sunday, |
| 1:49.5 | the Guardian, the BBC, Al Jazeera, RTE, CNN and more, because this was kind of a big deal. |
| 1:59.2 | And also we have the report on the commissions of mother and baby homes. |
| 2:06.6 | Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then let's begin. |
| 2:13.6 | In 1975, two boys are playing in the overgrown field out the back of the site of the |
| 2:19.3 | old mother and baby home in Chum County Galway. |
| 2:22.3 | They messed around going through rushes and overgrown grass and the like when they landed |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Katie Charlwood, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Katie Charlwood and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.