Tuam

Tuam, chief market town of the northern part of eastern County Galway, Ireland. It is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop, the see having been founded by St. Jarlath (c. 550), and the seat of a Protestant bishop. The Protestant cathedral incorporates part of an ancient church built about 1130 with the help of Turloch O’Connor, king of Connaught. The chancel is all that remains of the original structure, the rest having been rebuilt in its original style in the 19th century. The Roman Catholic cathedral, in Perpendicular Gothic style, has a square tower, which can be seen from miles around. In the market square is the High Cross of Tuam. There is a diocesan college for training clergy in Tuam. The town has a racecourse, is a center of the sugar beet industry, and manufactures electronic components.

In 2014 Tuam became the center of international controversy after the discovery of a mass grave believed to contain the remains of hundreds of infants and children who had died in the town’s former mother and baby home. The discovery instigated a government investigation into 18 of Ireland’s mother and baby homes of the 20th century. The excavation of the mass grave in Tuam began in July 2025 and was expected to take at least two years. Pop. (2022) 3,924.