'Do the right thing': Over 1,000 brave heat to protest over plans for Bessborough site

As the Taoiseach says a memorial park would be an appropriate use of the grounds, survivors and protesters say they are afraid to hope for justice

Martin Parfrey addresses the crowd on the Grand Parade in Cork City on Saturday where over 1,000 people gathered to protest against the planned development of part of the former Bessborough mother and baby home site. Pictures: Chani Anderson

Before the start of Saturday’s 'No Building Over Bessborough' rally, organisers handed out 923 stickers, each bearing an individual name, one for each of the infant deaths associated with the Cork mother and baby institution.

They soon ran out of badges, and one observer estimated that, at the height of the gathering, there could have been 1,200 people on the Grand Parade in the sweltering heat.

One of those was Dubliner Terri Harrison, who was 18 in 1973, pregnant and living in London, when she was, as she puts it, abducted by the Catholic Crusade of Rescue and put on a plane to Cork.

Sitting in the shade not far from Michael Collins and his bicycle, she told the Irish Examiner she will never feel easy in the southern capital.

“I never, ever wished to come back here, I’ll never make peace with this place,” she said.

“I was in London and they forced me into a car, and they drove to Heathrow, and they didn’t talk to me. They just kept telling me that I had to leave England, that I committed a crime and had to be sent to Ireland.” 

A priest manhandled her toward the plane, and the police looked away. Her designation on the plane was ‘PFI: Pregnant from Ireland’.

“My government, the Fine Gael government of 1973, paid for my flight,” she said.

She was brought from Cork Airport to Bessborough by two nuns. 

I knew I was in a very bad place. It had this terrible energy around it.

Terri was stripped of her name, given a house name — Tracy — and a number, 1735.

“I was imprisoned in Bessborough, and when I escaped from there, I managed to get back to Dublin, but I was caught and I was incarcerated in St Pat’s on the Navan Road.” 

When Terri’s baby Niall was five weeks old, she discovered he had been taken away for adoption.

She has had three other children, but she spent half a century looking for Niall, and she found him in recent years.

Life has not been easy, but she continues to fight for the mothers and children scarred by the legacy of Ireland’s mother and baby institutions.

Protesters wore badges that bore the names of the 923 children and 19 mothers known to have died there.

If the mood of Saturday’s rally felt a little strained, perhaps it was because it has been an emotionally draining five months for Cork’s extended survivor community.

It began with the bombshell decision in February by Cork City Council’s planning department to grant planning permission to Estuary View Enterprises to build 140 apartments on the Bessborough grounds. That decision has been defended by the council executive as being in line with planning legislation.

Senator Laura Harmon addressing the crowd on the Grand Parade in Cork City.

That was compounded two weeks ago by An Coimisiún Pleanála deciding two weeks ago to substantially uphold that decision, allowing for the building of 106 homes on the site.

Run by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary between 1922 and 1998, Bessborough was Ireland’s largest mother and baby institution and the last to close.

In its time, 9,768 mothers and 8,938 infants were admitted there, and according to the nuns, 923 infants died there. However, because only 64 burial records exist, we do not know where 859 children are buried. The bodies of 19 mothers are also missing.

(Terri Harrison recalls one of the women who died in Bessborough. “When I was there, a 17-year-old girl dropped dead; I think it was from a clot. We got no medical attention. That’s why I escaped.”) 

Scenes at the protest in Grand Parade in Cork City where approximately 1,000 people gathered.

In 2021, the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes found it was “highly likely” some of the bodies were buried on Bessborough’s grounds. We don’t know what led to that conclusion, because the commission's documents are sealed until 2051.

In 2022, a year after that finding, Cork city councillors adopted the Cork City Development Plan, in effect voting to rezone swathes of Bessborough’s undeveloped 60 acres for residential development. That led, inexorably, to the planning decision to build on the grounds.

Last week Cork city councillors voted unanimously to call on the Government to compulsorily purchase the lands. 

On Thursday, nine Cork city Oireachtas members signed a letter calling on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to order the acquisition of the site.

Then, on Friday, after fiery Dáil exchanges earlier in the week with Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns and a more cordial engagement with Labour leader Ivana Bacik, Mr Martin called the Irish Examiner.

He said he has asked Cork City Council to engage with the owners of the grounds of the former mother and baby institution, with a view to “exploring all options for the future of the site”.

The Taoiseach described Bessborough as “a place of huge importance and connection for many, many families and people,” and he agreed that a memorial park would be an appropriate use of the grounds.

“We need to do the right thing for all concerned,” he said.

On Saturday, survivors and campaigners like Terri Harrison seemed afraid to hope that the right thing will ever be done for people whose lives have been blighted by Bessborough.

"I know Micheál well," she said. "And I do hope he'll be true to his word. But we'll be watching."