Survivors' group wants input into plans for Cork's former Magdalene laundry

A group representing survivors of Magdalene laundries has requested that An Coimisiún Pleanála attach multiple conditions to any planning permission granted to a massive student accommodation development proposed for the Cork site of a former convent, orphanage, and Magdalene laundry.

Plans for what would be Cork’s largest ever student accommodation development, a 957-bed, eight building, multi-storey campus on the site of the former Good Shepherd Convent in Sunday’s Well, are currently on hold following several objections.

An Coimisiún Pleanála has received four appeals against the recent decision of Cork City Council to grant planning for 274 student apartments on the approximate 57ha former convent site.

The proposed development by Bellmount Good Shepherd Limited — which is owned by developer brothers Pádraig and Séamus Kelleher — would consist of eight student accommodation apartment blocks, ranging in height from three to five storeys.

A separate, three-storey, mixed-use building is also proposed, with ground-floor shops and upper-floor student accommodation, while the existing gate lodge would be converted to a café and to a co-working space.

The proposed works would involve the partial demolition, conservation, redevelopment, and extension of the former Good Shepherd Convent buildings.

All of the buildings are derelict and have suffered extensive fire damage as a result of multiple suspicious blazes across the years.

The convent, which opened in 1870, was closed by the Good Shepherd Sisters order in 1977.

Some 110 nuns are buried in a graveyard on the eastern side of the site, which is also the final resting place of Ellen Organ, a four-year-old who has been venerated as “Little Nellie of Holy God”, the so-called unofficial patron saint of Cork since her death in the orphanage in 1908.

High up in an almost inaccessible corner on the western end of the former convent site, in an area beyond the proposed development, a vandalised stone cross bears the names of 30 women.

They were incarcerated in the Magdalene laundry and are believed to be buried in a mass grave. However, three of the women named on the headstone are also listed as being buried at St Joseph’s Cemetery.

RESEARCH

Among those requests, JFMR noted that there has been no consultation with survivor groups.

It urged that an explicit condition be placed on the developer “to ensure that the history of the site is fully acknowledged and to meaningfully consult with survivors, affected people, and family members, and provide evidence of that consultation”.

The group asked that a condition be placed on the developer to employ “a suitably qualified, university-affiliated researcher, with experience in this area, to conduct ethically-approved research to determine the identities of those women buried in [the mass grave], including correspondence with the Good Shepherd order for their assistance in accessing the relevant files they hold”.

JFMR asked that the developers be required to ascertain how many women and children died at Sunday’s Well, and where they are buried, “by forensically consulting the civil registration records and the burial registers of public cemeteries in Cork … and by corresponding with the Good Shepherd order”.

“This condition should be met before any construction is allowed to take place.

“Additionally, after the above condition is met, and if construction is allowed to proceed, JFMR asks An Coimisiún Pleanála to place a positive obligation on the developer to ensure that rigorous, forensic, victim-centred archaeological methods are mobilised at Sunday’s Well to establish beyond doubt whether undocumented burials are present at the site,” 

the group said.

Plans in the architect’s design statement for an “exhibit space” at the former Bake House to “display information relating to the site’s history as an orphanage and Magdalene laundry, and place of burial for Little Nellie”, were contentious for JFMR.

The statement envisages that an “accessible path” and a “contemplative garden … for residents and visitors” be located between the Bake House and the nuns’ graveyard to the north-east of the development.

In the JFMR submission, its authors say: “Put simply, the developer plans to connect spaces intended to acknowledge the abusive history of Sunday’s Well with the final burial place of members of the religious order who perpetrated these abuses.

“This proposal is unethical, insensitive to survivors, affected people and family members, and further marginalises the Magdalene women and girls buried at the opposite end of the site.”

The authors acknowledged that the mass grave is outside the boundaries of the development, and the repair and upkeep of this cemetery are not the responsibility of the developer.

“Nevertheless, considering the human rights abuses committed at Sunday’s Well, JFMR contends that the developer is obligated to ensure that this development does not commit further injustices,” the authors say.

“Therefore, we ask An Coimisiún Pleanála to place a condition that requires the developer to carry out repairs and ensure that the Magdalene graveyard is maintained to the highest possible standard.”

The group also asked that a condition be placed on the developer that they ensure that equal levels of access be guaranteed to both the Magdalene grave and that of Little Nellie and the religious sisters.

“Additionally, we ask An Coimisiún Pleanála to place a further condition that requires the developer and the company managing the site to ensure that information regarding access to the Magdalene graveyard — including special vehicular access — is provided in plain English at the entrance to the site,” JFMR stated.

Bellmount Good Shepherd Limited was asked for a comment.

A ruling by An Coimisiún Pleanála on the various appeals is due by early November 2025.

According to figures collated by Justice for Magdalenes Research (JMFR), 195 women and girls died at the laundry. JMFR has made a submission, asking that several conditions be attached by An Coimisiún Pleanála to any planning permission.