Two boys innocently playing stumbled on one of Ireland's darkest secrets: a mass graveyard of nearly 800 babies.
It was the 1970s in a small town in the west of Ireland when an orchard owner chased off two boys stealing his apples.
The youngsters avoided being caught by clambering over the stone wall of the derelict Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home.
The Tuam grave has compelled a broader reckoning that extends to the highest levels of government in Dublin and the Vatican.
Mother-and-baby homes were not unique to Ireland, but the church's influence on social values magnified the stigma on women and girls who became pregnant outside marriage.
The homes were opened in the 1920s after Ireland won its independence from Britain.
Patrick McDonagh, who grew up in the neighbourhood, said a priest had blessed the ground after Hopkins's discovery and masses were held there regularly. »