Cork's Bessborough ‘not an empty field waiting to be filled', say campaigners

A protest outside Leinster House yesterday was told that the site of the Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork is “not an empty field waiting to be filled”.

Campaigners hoping to stop a development on the site gathered at the gates of Leinster House were joined by families, supporters, and politicians for the No Building Over Bessborough rally.

They are fighting to stop the construction of a 140-unit apartment development on the grounds of the former Cork mother and baby home.

In February, developer Estuary View Enterprises 2020 received planning permission from Cork City Council to demolish almost a dozen buildings at Bessborough to make way for the apartments.

Minute's silence

A minute’s silence for 923 babies who died at Bessborough took place during the protest.

Nearly 859 babies who died there remain unaccounted for.

The Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes said they are most likely on the vast grounds where they were born.

Some supporters wept throughout the rally, while others held up placards stating: “Stop the development” and “Find the babies”.

One of the speakers was Carmel Cantwell, whose mother, Madeleine Bridget Marvier, was one of the young women in the home. She was 17 when she gave birth to a baby boy, William, who died.

Ms Cantwell said: “I stand here not only as a family member or someone connected to Bessborough, but as a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves, the mothers, the children, and the generations whose lives were shaped and, in many cases, shattered by what happened on these grounds.

“Bessborough is not just land. It is not an empty field waiting to be filled. It is a place of memory, of loss, of unanswered questions.

“It is landscape that holds the stories of thousands of women and children who pass through the gates, many of whom never came home.”

Hundreds of children who died have no known burial place, Ms Cantwell said.