Liam Neeson has produced his first feature film, "The Lost Children of Tuam," telling the story of Catherine Corless, an amateur historian who exposed the deaths of nearly 800 infants at a mother and baby home in County Galway run by the Bon Secours order. Neeson was moved to action after reading about Corless's investigation in a 2017 New York Times article, feeling a sense of shame and obligation to bring her remarkable story to the screen as part of a wider reckoning with institutional abuse in Ireland.

The St Mary's home operated between 1925 and 1961, with 796 children dying and being buried in an unmarked mass grave, some in a disused septic tank, without proper burial records. Corless, a former textile factory secretary, persisted in her research despite resistance from officials and the church, uncovering the atrocity through detective work. Excavations at the 5,000-square-metre site are ongoing, with forensic archaeologists having found skeletal remains of 99 babies. The film, directed by Frank Berry and featuring English actor Monica Dolan in a praised central performance as Corless, is being released in Ireland this week and in the UK next month, having won best Irish film at the Galway Film Fleadh.