By Matt Fox
BBC News NI
The amateur historian whose research helped uncover the Tuam babies scandal has said she is optimistic families affected will soon have closure.
Catherine Corless exposed the secret burials of hundreds of children at a former mother and baby home run by nuns in Tuam, County Galway.
A child died nearly every two weeks between the mid-1920s and 1960s.
Her comments come as the Irish government announce a director to oversee the site's excavation.
"It is great news that finally a director has been appointed to oversee the excavation, exhumation, forensic DNA testing and dignified burial of the Tuam home babies who were discarded and lay in a sewage facility for many decades," Ms Corless told BBC News NI.
"This is what I have campaigned for over many years," said the historian who has been honoured for her "tireless" work.
"I am quite optimistic that the director, Daniel Mac Sweeney, who has vast expertise in this area, will do a thorough job, and bring closure for those who have siblings or relatives in that pit," she added.
Ms Corless spent years trying to find out what happened to the remains of hundreds of children who died at the Catholic-maintained home after she found there were death certificates for 796 infants, but no burial remains.
Fears of a mass grave were raised and her work made international headlines.
Media coverage of Ms Corless' findings in 2014 suggested the possibility that some of the children may have been buried in an...
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