THE GOVERNMENT HAS again refused to commit to an excavation at the site of a former mother and baby institution in Bessborough in Cork, despite the fact the burial place of over 800 children remains unknown.
Speaking in the Dáil today, Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman said there is a lack of consensus over whether or not the site should be excavated, noting that such a process would have a “significant cost”.
A number of planning applications to build apartments at the site have been refused in recent years, including one in September.
The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes report, published in January 2021, found that some 923 infants died at Bessborough.
The institution, which was run by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, operated from 1922 until 1998.
The Commission only found burial records for 64 children, meaning the burial place of 859 infants remains unknown.
There have been repeated calls by some survivors and relatives to excavate the site in an attempt to find where these children are buried.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns raised the issue with O’Gorman in the Dáil today. She said survivors who spent time in this institution “have never received justice”.
The very least the State owes survivors, minister, is to find the bodies of their children.
“We need an investigation into the grounds to establish the location of the remains of the babies, and to conduct a sensitive excavation and a dignified exhumation of any of the remains.”
Cairns, who is a TD for Cork South-West, said the Government should take ownership of the site at Bessborough via a compulsory purchase order so it can be excavated and established as a memorial site.
She brought up the story of Madeleine Walsh, who was 18 years old when she went to Bessborough in 1960 and gave birth to a son, William. He became ill and died aged just six weeks old.
Cairns said Madeleine was erroneously told that her son lay in an unmarked grave at Bessborough.
“She visited that spot for years to be near her son and to speak to him, until 2019 when the fifth interim report [carried out by the Commission] revealed that the nuns had lied.
“William had actually been buried in an overgrown famine graveyard on Carr’s Hill [another site in Cork].”
Cairns continued: “There seems to be no end to the cruelty that has been heaped upon these women from religious orders and from the State. At every step, the department has failed them.”
O’Gorman said he is “very conscious of the hurt” felt by the survivors and family members of people who died in Bessborough, but there are no current plans to excavate the site.
The minister told Cairns there are “differing views” on whether or not the Bessborough site should be excavated, including among some survivors.
“That’s not to say the State shouldn’t do anything, but I just think it is important that we know when we speak of engaging with survivors, we have to recognise sometimes different survivors have different views in terms of how the State should respond on a particular site.”
O’Gorman noted that the Commission “didn’t consider it feasible to excavate the full available site, which now amounts to 60 acres, or indeed the full original site that would have been over 200 acres”.
“I think, given the scale of the estate – both now and the wider estate (before part of it was sold) – that would have a very significant cost.”
O’Gorman said there is greater consensus around the need to excavate the site of another former mother and baby institution in Tuam in Galway, where around 800 children are believed to be buried. This process, years in the making, is due to commence shortly.
He noted that the Government also supported an in-depth scan of the site of another former institution, Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea in Tipperary. This scan, carried out late last year, found “anomalies” in the earth which may indicate a mass grave.
Cairns said there is “no reason why the State should provide a survey for the exhumation of Tuam and not for the other sites”.
I know that survivors are not a homogenous group – but how do you say one group deserves answers and justice, and another one doesn’t?
During today’s discussion, Cairns and other TDs also criticised the Government’s redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby institutions.
The long-awaited scheme opened to applications in May, but thousands of survivors are excluded.
O’Gorman said that some €27.4 million has been paid out to around 1,800 people under the redress scheme to date. He said officials are working to make sure the process operates in a non-adversarial and prompt manner.
As previously reported by The Journal, some survivors are experiencing long delays while they wait for their applications to be processed.
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