Taoiseach says council should have bought Bessborough site for memorial 

A vigil will take place on the grounds of the former Bessborough mother and baby home in protest at the recent granting of planning permission to build 140 apartments there.

Survivors are gathering on the site on Sunday March 8 at 1pm and are appealing to their supporters to join them.

The rally comes after Cork City Council gave the green light to Estuary View Enterprises for the construction of apartments at the former institution, despite three previous refusals relating to the works in the past.

Survivors and families of the 900 children who died there want the land preserved because only one grave has ever been located on the site and they believe there could be hundreds of unmarked graves.

The Taoiseach has said Cork City Council should have purchased part of the Bessborough site as a memorial.

Speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns raised the issue, saying that the Mother and Baby Homes Commission report said that 923 children died at the home, but that burial records only exist for 64. Ms Cairns added that the Commission concluded it was "highly likely some of those children were buried on the grounds".

She said that the state "either doesn't care or doesn't want to know, because there has never been a proper forensic examination of Bessborough".

"Unbelievably, Cork City Council has granted planning permission for 140 apartments on the site. Survivors of Bessborough have never received justice. The very least the government owes them is to find the bodies of their children."

In response, Micheál Martin said Ms Cairns had made "all sorts of accusations against the government which are unfounded" and accused her of "taking the moral high ground" and being "morally condescending".

"I met with survivors from Bessborough, and many did not want the forensic exhumation or examination of the site. They want a memorial, and they wanted to be respected. I've spoken to survivors. The city council should, in my view, some many years ago, should have acquired that for amenity purposes and recreation and memorialisation.

"We don't have a say as an executive authority in planning applications or planning decisions."

Campaigner Carmel Cantwell whose mother gave birth to a baby boy who died in the home, but his remains have not been located, said: “The main reason we are getting together is in protest of the development.

"People are deeply upset over this."

“We are appealing for more people to support us to help us stop this development. We want the last remaining 60 acres of the Bessborough grounds preserved.

“This land should be given back to the community in the memory of the children and babies who died there, as well as the nearly 19,000 women who were incarcerated there.

“This land, regardless of burials or not, hold the memories for so many people. It is also the last time my mother saw her baby.” 

Records show 923 children born in Bessborough died and the burial places of 859 of them are not recorded, some campaigners believe the majority are likely to be buried on the grounds.

The newly approved plans will see the apartment units spread across three blocks, with two blocks comprising a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The third block will comprise a mix of 47 one- and two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit.

The lands previously formed part of the Bessborough Estate, which encompassed over 200 acres of land. Cork City Council compulsory purchased some 140 acres of the land in the 1970s, which have since been developed as Mahon Industrial Park, Lough Mahon Technology Park and Mahon Retail Park, as well as a section of the N40 road.