'Do Cork people not care?' Catherine Corless calls on people to fight Bessborough development

Catherine Corless on the grounds of the Bon Secours mother and baby home in Tuam last year. She is standing with survivors and campaigners who want to prevent development on lands at Bessborough until further investigations are carried out. File photo: Eamonn Farrell / © RollingNews.ie

The researcher whose work uncovered the mass burial site of children at the former mother and baby home in Tuam has called on the people of Cork to help protect the grounds of the former Bessborough complex, saying “Do Cork people not care?” 

Catherine Corless, who documented the 796 children who died at the Bons Secours institution in Galway and had no burial records, said she is standing with survivors and campaigners who want to prevent development on lands at Bessborough until further investigations are carried out.

The latest controversy centres on plans for a 140-apartment development on part of the former Bessborough estate.

Cork City Council granted planning permission earlier this year, subject to a series of conditions, including archaeological monitoring and specialist oversight should any human remains be discovered during works.

In an online video, Ms Corless appealed for support for those seeking to find their loved ones — the majority of the babies graves have never been located.

Ms Corless said: "I feel more Cork people should join in."

She said it is "inhumane" to build on land that is likely to hold the bodies of children.

"Like Tuam, nobody seems to care because these little babies were illegitimate. Untruths have been told that the babies are going to Carr's Hill. That can't be so. They're in the ground somewhere."

She also questioned how any excavator can dig on land where babies may be buried.

She also referenced a front page article in 2021 carried by the Irish Examiner showing all the names of the children who died in Bessborough.

"I was shocked when all those 900 names were printed on the front page of the Examiner. I thought there would be an outrage,” she said.

"Do Cork people not care? All those little children and young babies. And does the church not care?"

"The church has a moral duty as well to look into this and to do something about it. First of all, there has to be a test excavation in different areas."

She said the discovery of "one little corpse" would stop planning.

Families against development at Bessborough left signs at the gate there during a vigil in April. Picture: Noel Sweeney

"Please, Cork people, church and everyone else involved, just stop and think. Please do not go in and start that building until there's a test excavation done. Until the babies are taken out. They have to be there."

The former mother and baby home in Blackrock was operated by the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and was overseen by the State from 1922 until 1998.

The final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes found that 923 children died at Bessborough or after being transferred from the institution.

The planning decision has been appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála by campaigners, survivors and supporters who argue that the site should not be developed until comprehensive investigations are carried out to establish whether unmarked burials are present.

The Bessborough Mother and Baby Home Support Group, led by campaigner Carmel Cantwell, has called for the grounds to be preserved as a place of remembrance and reflection.