Mother and baby home survivors challenge bishop to help them find over 1,000 children buried there

It comes after the Bishop of Killaloe, Fintan Monaghan, urged his parishioners to 'name evil for what it is' in his Christmas message

The 'We Are Still Here' group has been calling for further forensic tests to be carried out on the grounds of the former mother and baby home at Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Tipperary. File photo

Survivors of the former Sean Ross Abbey mother and baby home have asked their local bishop to help them find the 1,090 lost children who died at the religious-run institution, after he urged his parishioners to “name evil for what it is”.

During his Christmas message, Bishop of Killaloe Fintan Monaghan asked his community to “refuse the temptation to look away” and to “stand in solidarity with all who are wounded by violence, without qualification or selective compassion”.

He said that “to be a Christian today is not simply to cherish private beliefs or seasonal traditions. It is to allow the Gospel to shape our response to the harsh realities around us” and he asked parishioners to “name evil for what it is”.

Ann Connolly, a survivor of the former Tipperary home for unmarried mothers, said she felt compelled to respond to the bishop’s words and called on him to “help us find the children”. She told the Irish Examiner that Bishop Monaghan’s message “does not comfort us, it unsettles us”.

“He urges us to refuse the temptation to look away, to name what is wrong, and to stand in solidarity with those wounded by injustice,” she said.

“He knows we are trying to find the babies who died in Sean Ross Abbey, there’s over 1,000 of them, yet there are only 44 graves and all we are getting back from Government is doors shut in our faces, we need the bishop to also speak up. It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t around at the time, he is around now.”

Ms Connolly, who was born in the home on November 28, 1968, said the bishop is aware of the large number of children’s deaths at the former mother and baby home in Roscrea.

“Sean Ross Abbey lies within this diocese,” said Ms Connolly. “It is a place where 1,090 babies and young children are officially recorded as having died, and only a small part of the Angel’s Plot was excavated.

“Approximately 10% of the burial area was examined, leaving most of it untouched and families without answers.

When the bishop speaks about refusing to look away, survivors hear that as a challenge. 

"For decades, what happened at Sean Ross Abbey was ignored. Even now, when the scale of loss is known, full accountability has still not happened.”

Ms Connolly, who is part of the We Are Still Here group, has been calling for further forensic tests to be carried out on the grounds of the former mother and baby home. She has written to Bishop Monaghan and invited him to visit survivors at the burial site.

“The bishop writes that to be Christian is to stand with those who suffer, to mourn with those who mourn, and to name injustice without selective compassion,” she said.

“Survivors have been asking for this for years. We are not asking for blame or condemnation. We are asking for truth, transparency, and dignity in death for children who were denied it in life.

“We can’t find those children, and we have had ground penetrating scans at those grounds and experts have said further tests need to be carried out. But the Department of Children are doing nothing.”

The Sisters of Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, who ran the home handed over their records to the Commission of Inquiry during its investigation in 2015, which have since been archived for 30 years.

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“I am one of the youngest babies adopted from Sean Ross Abbey,” said Ms Connolly, “I will be dead by the time those records are released. There could be information in those records to tell us where the babies are buried.

“In the meantime, we are trying to get the government to take this seriously, and we need the support of the bishop. If he is telling us not to look away, well I believe by not intervening and asking for those records, he is looking away. Everyone is looking away.

“He speaks about hope being a disciplined choice grounded in justice and truth. For survivors, hope looks like access to records, a proper and complete examination of the burial site, and acknowledgement of the lives lost at Sean Ross Abbey."