Ordnance Survey to search archive for evidence of children's burial ground at Bessborough

An Bord Pleanála said last year it would be 'premature' to permit apartments on the site of the former mother and baby home before establishing presence and extent of a burial ground

An OSi expert described to a 2021 planning hearing how the map of Bessborough was produced by a Mr Horgan and a Mr O’Rourke in 1949 and 1950. See first linked article below. 

The national mapping agency says it plans to review old maps and records to see if it can identify the precise location of a children’s burial ground on the former Bessborough mother and baby home site in Cork.

Colin Bray, the CEO of Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi), outlined the plan in response to a letter from Cork City Council CEO, Ann Doherty.

“OSi wishes to carry out a further round of analysis to include a comprehensive analysis against all other features on the relevant map (which are supported by further records) to establish whether this review of these features against the underlying records might be of assistance in determining whether there is any further evidence which could be considered to assist in an analysis of the precise location of the Children’s Burial Ground,” he said.

Ms Doherty said she wrote to the OSi last June on behalf of the city council inviting  its expert assistance in relation to Bessborough as part of the council’s drafting of the new city development plan.

Colin Bray, the CEO of Ordnance Survey Ireland said it would review maps and documents and compare them with the trace map produced in 1949/1950. 

She said the council must try to establish all relevant facts and gather as much relevant information as possible as part of the drafting of a city development plan to ensure city councillors can make fully informed decisions on land zonings.

Her letter to the OSi came a month after MWB Two Ltd was refused planning for 179 apartments, on part of the former Bessborough estate because of concerns that the works might interfere with a children’s burial ground.

MWB’s site overlaps an area of land labelled as a ‘children’s burial ground’ on a 1950s OSi trace map.

It was the main focus of a Bord Pleanála hearing on the apartment plan last April. Retired OSi cartographer Michael Flynn, who gave evidence on behalf of the developers, told the hearing he was satisfied the label referred to a nearby smaller area next to a graveyard for nuns.

However, OSi expert mapper John Clarkin, who gave evidence for the Cork Survivors’ and Supporters’ Alliance, said he believes the words, the size of the font, and even placement of the letter C, were done deliberately by expert mappers to indicate the location of the burial ground.

In refusing planning last May,  the board said it would be premature to grant planning before establishing the presence, and the extent of, any such burial site.

The board said it made its decision having regard to the fifth interim report and the final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, which was unable to account for the burial places of some 859 infants who died at Bessborough between 1922 and 1998.

It said it was not satisfied that the site was not previously used as, and does not contain, a children’s burial ground.

In January, The Irish Times reported that lawyers for the developers had called on OSi to “correct the record”, contending that Mr Clarkin’s interpretation about the location of the ‘children’s burial ground’ label was incorrect and that the resulting media attention had led to it subsequently being accepted as fact.

OSi said it reviewed a transcript of Mr Clarkin’s evidence and does not believe that there are any material inaccuracies in it that require correction.