Bessborough survivors' wishes being overshadowed by human rights debate

Some survivors have accepted that the burial ground in Bessborough is the site of their babies' remains and wish to grieve them in peace

Researcher Maureen Considine with Colette Finn, former deputy lord mayor and Angela Healy at a vigil at Bessborough in June. Picture: Larry Cummins

In the bible the Virgin Mary is mute and serene, or silent and suffering. It doesn’t matter really as long as she stays quiet, right?

For seven years I have worked alongside women who became mothers in Bessborough. For me what stands out the most is how they are ignored, dismissed, and undermined. I have heard people justify this by labeling these women as traumatised/damaged and not able. Still the mothers found ways to be heard.

We established the Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance (CSSA) with one initial goal, to find out where these mothers’ babies were buried. With the help of a pro-bono legal team and one very brave Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) staff member we did so. 

Our legal team sent detailed submissions to the Mother and Baby Home Commission of Investigation but nothing came of it. Soon afterwards, a developer — MWB Two — attempted to conduct archaeological, but not forensic, investigations in preparation for a planning application. On the foot of our complaint the excavation licence was revoked by the National Monuments Service.

Later the developer applied for planning permission. We objected and were granted an oral hearing. Over three days the developer was represented by a Senior Counsel, an expert in planning, who is now a high court judge. The CSSA was represented by David Dodd BL. The argument hinged on the precise location of the children’s burial ground as seen on a 1950 ‘Trace Map’.

After conceding that OSI cartographers don’t mark out burial grounds that do not exist, the developers argued it was within the folly enclosure. Yet at the congregation’s other institutions there are separate burial grounds for nuns, mothers, and infants.

We argued, backed by the meticulous evidence of OSI’s John Clarkin, that the burial ground is also to the north west but outside of the enclosure. The board ruled in our favour.

The children’s burial ground is not located within the lands owned by the second developer (EVE) who recently got planning permission. The identified location of the children’s burial ground is being effaced by the current media coverage of the issue. The idea that further haphazard burial places exist in the wider estate is unconvincing. 

As one CSSA mother noted: “There wasn’t a blade of grass out of place” in that institution; the suggestion of multiple scattered burial locations contradicts the lived experience of survivors. Another mother recalls attending the burial of a baby, born to a girl with Down Syndrome, in 1975. This burial was north-west of the folly, outside of the enclosure.

The area has been heavily disturbed in recent decades, destroying and dispersing the material remains of the children’s burial ground. In the mid 1990s the area surrounding the folly was transformed with the Bessboro Project Group’s 1994-1996 construction of a ‘Resurrection Garden’ and ‘Garden of Reflection’ associated with the development of Cork Heritage Park. 

In the mid 2000s Bessboro Road was built, first by the nuns and subsequently rebuilt by Cork City Council at the direction of An Bord Pleanála.

Maureen Considine (left) and Catherine Coffey-Brien of the Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance laying flowers near the Folly at Bessborough. Picture: Eddie O’Hare

The mothers had to contemplate calls for excavation with the disturbed condition of the site, and their own health issues, and the time they have left. They have come to accept that while physical remains are fragmented and dispersed, their babies’ essence remains in the land marked children’s burial ground.

The mothers at the heart of our alliance are being overshadowed by an abstract human rights debate. Any demand for further disturbance of remains without their explicit input and consent is not an act of justice; it is a repetition of the original trauma where an institution exerted control over their children’s burial. These mothers have inherent rights to privacy and space to grieve in peace.

When the second developer (EVE) approached us we were not concerned by their plans as they do not own the children’s burial ground. 

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However, we requested that they provide forensic monitoring in all areas where excavation occurs. We asked not because we believe multiple burial locations exist, but to address the concerns of those who fear they do. To ensure independence, we secured agreement that forensic investigators involved in the Tuam excavations oversee this work.

Another key part of the development is the provision of an onsite community cafe and memorial area which will provide a place of rest during survivors visits to the estate. We hope that a community presence will make the area safer and more accessible.

The EVE masterplan preserves over 50% of its 40-acre holding as parkland. Should the MWB Two site and the folly area remain undeveloped, the entirety of the lands south of Bessborough House could be dedicated to further memorialisation. We hope the remaining mothers live to see the children’s burial ground acknowledged.

• Maureen Considine is a PhD scholar at University College Cork and an activist with the Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance.