Irish Examiner view: We can't ignore calls to turn Bessborough into a memorial park
Mother and baby home survivor Ann O'Gorman and family members taking part in the recent vigil at Bessborough in Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins
Five years ago, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission reported there had been a staggering 923 child deaths specifically relating to just one of those establishments — the notorious Bessborough Home in Cork’s suburbs which had operated between 1922 and 1998.
Burial records only existed for 64 of those children and the commission found it “highly likely” some of the missing total of 859 children remain buried on the institution’s grounds.
Those remains have never been recovered and, therefore, it remains unknown if they were ever even given a Christian burial.
For those mothers whose babies were taken from them at Bessborough and who survived the ordeal, there remains obvious and pertinent questions as to what happened those infants and where they were buried.
The pain of that separation and the void of information surrounding what might have happened them and where were they interred, is as real as it is shocking.
Now, following the granting of planning permission to build 106 apartments on the site, the authority which granted it — Cork City Council — as well as those in An Comisiun Pleanála who upheld that decision, and those in Government who have so far failed to see the humanitarian aspect of what’s happening there, have been accused of failing those mothers and those children.
One of the institution’s survivors, Madeleine Walsh, whose son William was six months old when he died at Bessborough in 1960, told the Irish Examiner she could not comprehend how planning was upheld.
“God forgive them, have they no heart or soul?” she asked. “How could they think of building on land where children are missing?”
While the State has already offered an apology on behalf of Ireland to those victims — not just those in Bessborough, but the other 47 mother and baby homes operated throughout Ireland between 1922 and 2006 — it has not acted in any responsible manner to prevent continued suffering to those who managed to come out on the other side.
Certainly, the ongoing work at the St Mary’s Home in Tuam to recover the remains of children buried in a former sewer on its premises, is a source of comfort for survivors of that establishment.
That the Government was backed into a corner to carry out that work, largely as a result of the work carried out by historian Catherine Corless, was shameful enough in itself. That Corless herself was once again enraged enough to weigh in on the Bessborough scandal, only heaped more shame on the matter.
Her calls — among those of many others — for the Government to force a compulsory order on the Bessborough site so it can be turned into a memorial park commemorating all those who suffered there, cannot be ignored.
The decision by Meta to enhance the privacy features of its smart glasses following significant backlash about unauthorised recording has to be welcomed — but once again the tech giant had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the reversal.
This newspaper has highlighted on several occasions, not least a couple of months ago when a well-known content creator was going around Cork city recording film of unwitting victims.
The tech giant has embarked on a major marketing campaign to promote the sale of these glasses, using the likes of influencer Kyle Jenner as well as sports stars such as Kylian Mbappe and Patrick Mahomes to persuade the public to buy the product.
But, after it emerged that some men were using the glasses to secretly film women and then upload the content online, Meta has been forced to act to try and stop such irresponsibility.
One case highlighted was that of a young retail worker filmed without her knowledge or consent in her workplace. She described the incident as a “major violation” of her privacy after the footage was posted on social media.
The company has announced that revised versions of the glasses will have anti-tampering measures to stop people using them on unsuspecting innocents.
This, while welcome, suggests that much of the new technology arriving in our shops or available online have not been effectively road-tested to iron out anomalies which can be exploited.
It also suggests that their research and development departments have not gone far enough to prevent things like this happening in the first place.
Almost as certainly as night follows day, after little more than a week of hot weather, water conservation has become an issue across the country.
With water already having been turned off in North Kildare at the weekend after Uisce Éireann halted supplies from the Allen reservoir in order to conserve water and allow levels to be restored to normal levels, we can expect more of the same in the coming days.
Uisce Éireann has said nighttime restrictions on water have already been introduced in some parts of the country. This follows high temperature warnings in 13 counties across the weekend with a second warning for 10 counties set to take effect today.
We have known for some time that the water infrastructure across Ireland is, generally, in a bad state of repair, to the point that — heatwave or not — communities have been subjected to boil water orders or forced to use bottled water for sustained periods.
The recent good weather will only exacerbate these problems as usage peaks in the heat.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
