Bessborough group want sale of

SURVIVORS of Bessborough house — a former Mother and Baby Home — have called for an injunction preventing the sale of the property.

The lands are being sold by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary. The order confirmed in July last year that it intended to put the site up for sale, but will not include the cemetery and remembrance site as part of the portfolio.

However, the site may contain important information in relation to the history of the Mother and Baby Home which was located on the site and should be investigated further, according to Mother and Baby Home survivor, Joan McDermott.

Ms McDermott of Irish First Mothers, originally from Mitchelstown, was interned at Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in the late 1960s and was separated from her son for more than 50 years. She said the nuns should be prevented from selling the property while there is an ongoing commission of enquiry into the former institutions.

“Bessborough is fully aware that the commission of enquiry is in situ yet they have the audacity to put the place up for sale,” said Ms McDermott.

“It’s so disingenuous to the women who suffered there for years.

“Do they not want to find out more about what actually went on there, or do they not want us digging anymore?” she asked.

“It beggars belief.

“We, as a group and people I have worked with and befriended, who were also interned in Bessborough have written to the Government this week, insisting that they take out an injunction on the sale of the property immediately,” she revealed.

Ms McDermott also called for more investigation into the site which is said to be the burial grounds on the grounds of Bessborough house and legal confirmation that this part of the grounds will not be sold.

“More investigations and enquiries need to be carried out.”

The road to discovering the truth about the Mother and Baby homes has been a long one but it is not yet over, according to Ms McDermott who said answers must be given.