Bessborough plan reawakened trauma of mother and baby home survivors – minister

Norma Foley acknowledges families' trauma as Cork TDs tell the Dáil the planned development should not go ahead

The Dáil statements come after last week's protests at Leinster House including by Bessborough survivor Noelle Browne who was accompanied by Larkin Community College student Alannah Glossop, and history teacher Roisín Sweeny as she handed in a petition against any building at the site. Picture: Sam Boal/Collins

The granting of planning permission at the Bessborough site has "reawakened" trauma of survivors, the children's minister has said as the Dáil heard statements on the former mother and baby home.

In February, developer Estuary View Enterprises 2020 received planning permission from Cork City Council to demolish almost a dozen buildings at Bessborough to make way for 140 apartments. 

That was despite previous refusals relating to the estate and concerns that it may contain the unmarked graves of hundreds of children.

In its latest application, the developer said it had consulted with the Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance (CSSA), which represents 50 families and does not oppose development at Bessborough.

CSSA has called for the compulsory purchase for memorialisation of land beside the Bessborough folly, identified on a 1950s Ordnance Survey map as a children’s burial site.

However, the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home Support Group, which has 700 members, is opposed to any development at Bessborough until the estate has been forensically examined.

An Ordnance Survey Ireland expert described to a 2021 planning hearing how the OSI map of Bessborough was produced by a Mr Horgan and a Mr O’Rourke in 1949 and 1950. File picture 

In the Dáil on Thursday, Norma Foley stressed that the state does not own the lands and the Government cannot overturn the planning permission, but acknowledged that the building on the site was upsetting for many.

"I fully acknowledge the trauma that must come with not knowing the burial location of one’s family members. I acknowledge that the application to build on lands at Bessborough, and the granting of planning permission for that application, has reawakened much of that trauma. 

"I would like to express my sincere understanding of how difficult this has been for mothers who stayed in Bessborough and for the children who were born there."

Cork TDs oppose Bessborough plan

During the debate, Sinn Féin Cork South Central TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said it is "profoundly wrong and hurtful to build there" adding there are other sites across the country.

"We have been talking for some time in this House about this issue as regards the institutions and where children were buried. 

"Some 700 children who died at Bessborough are unaccounted for. We do not know where they are buried. 

"It is absolutely appalling," he said.

Bessborough babies in the 1990s

His Cork North Central colleague Thomas Gould drew the line from 10-month-old John O'Brien who was the first child recorded to have died at Bessborough on November 3, 1922 to Zoei Bonny who died on August 10, 1994.

"She would have been 32 this year," Mr Gould said. 

"She was only two days old and she was the last baby to die in Bessborough."

Labour Cork North Central TD Eoghan Kenny said the history of mother and baby homes is "not distanced or detached".

"It is raw and painful, and remains unresolved for far too many families. 

"Bessborough, in particular, stands as one of the starkest symbols of that legacy."

Fianna Fáil Cork South Central TD Séamus McGrath said the site should not be developed, regardless of the need for housing.

"We absolutely need housing but there are limits to that and there are exceptions to that. 

"I think this situation is an exception to that. I have no difficulty in saying, as a housing spokesperson, that this site should not be developed."

Between 1922 and 1998, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ran Bessborough as a mother and baby institution, during which time 9,768 mothers and 8,938 babies were admitted.

In 2021, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission reported 923 child deaths related to Bessborough. Burial records exist for only 64 of those children, and the commission concluded it was “highly likely” some were buried at Bessborough.

• Paul Hosford, Acting Political Editor