It was not an "abbey" per se, as in having been a nunnery which decided to take in orphans. That is not how the place got it's start.
The Bon Secour nuns had a previous orphanage, began as such --- but that other facility was woefully inadequate, so along with soem help from the government, they moved their efforts to the old work house at Tuam.
There was some misreporting-- but it is no hoax that there was something of a mass grave there, and it being in an below-ground cistern that was likely at some time in the past used as a septic tank (old maps indicate 'sewage tank')--- previous to the Bon Secour nuns use of the property as an orphanage.
That said, there is more to the story, for there were many similar orphanages in Ireland.
Among the greater number of those, was varied types of abuse and inhumanity (and government involvement), with reflections on those things of the past having recently surfaced in Ireland, being grappled with those of the RCC, and those not.
There was more than one location at the Taum site where bodies were found ---- excluding the adult remains that were unearthed on the North-Northwest side of the property which dated back to the 19th century 'work house' (read-- poor house) days.
I could dig up links to show you these things, and more, but will not tolerate abuse of my own person during the process.
There was some information which never made it to these pages.
I kept offering to supply it --- at the mere cost of myself not being personally criticized, or spoken to rudely, or being accused in any way...
I had no takers, and in this, the information could be somewhat exculpatory for the nuns at Taum. Yet part of the price for the info would be to accept that yes, quite possibly --- a large septic tank dating back to the mid-19th century was likely also used as place of burial for many infants and young children who died there.
I don't know how long t would take to again find the information. It was a bit obscure...but there was a reporter local to Ireland (and not too far from the location?) who on his own radio show interviewed one of the persons who as a young boy (12 or 13 years old at the time) had discovered the mass grave in the early 1970's. He had more than a few web pages which had old maps and what-not, to go along with his reporting.
A recording of the interview with that one witness is available there, though I cannot at this time recall the reporter's name. But it is that guy who had some interesting pieces to the puzzle, with those pieces coming about through interviewing many persons who had various forms of contact with the facility.
Since that time locals first discovered the tank full of bones, there have been those among the nearby local population, most of them Roman Catholics, I take, who have been taking care of the site as a graveyard, and honoring it as such.
This is worth a read, the article and especially the comments. In the above link, as in this matter of "19th Century Lesbian Convent Murders," those who participate make the whole place smell like the National Perspirer and do the devil's work by pulling people down into scandals.
No wonder our political FReeper brethren rarely come to the Religion Forum. No wonder we can't even recommend that our own families or fellow parishioners join us here online. It's because the Religion Forum is the nastiest neighborhood in this our Free Republic.
There are even better reasons why "rash judgment," "detraction," "calumny," scandal-mongering," "revilement," and "malicious talk" are listed as sins in the Scriptures.
A little more immersion in the Gospels, and --- in particular --- the Epistle of St. James, should leave one adequately instructed and reproved.
But I will end with St. Paul:
2 Timothy 2:23-26 -
Have nothing to do with stupid and senseless controversies;
you know that they breed quarrels.
And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome
but kindly to everyone,
an apt teacher, patient,
correcting opponents with gentleness.
God may perhaps grant that they will repent
and come to know the truth,
and that they may escape from the snare of the devil,
having been held captive by him to do his will.