The Associated Press last week issued a lengthy correction admitting that the septic tank might not contain any human remains at all; the wire service had also incorrectly reported that the children hadn't been baptized because they were born out of wedlock. Other media outlets have been slower to dial down the hyperbole. Britain's Guardian newspaper amended a headline on an opinion piece, removing the "dumped" claim, but most outlets have left their fact-free speculation to stand.

The truth is not entirely clear, but we know this: 796 babies are buried somewhere on the site of the old Bon Secours sisters' home, which operated between 1925 and 1961. The records clearly show that. It's also true that these institutions, into which unmarried women were placed by their families, has a higher infant mortality rate than the general population. In the 1920s, children born to unmarried mothers, mostly living in institutions, were six times more likely to die than children living at home with married parents. By the 1950s, they were three times higher, and by the 1960s it was equal, says historian Lindsey Earner-Byrne, author of Mother and Child: Maternity and Child Welfare in Dublin, 1922-60.

That Story About Irish Babies Buried in a Septic Tank Was Shocking. It Also Wasn't Entirely True.