Decision on Cork Bessborough site planning appeals due in July

A decision is due on July 9 on two separate appeals against planning permission to build 140 apartments on the site of a notorious Cork mother and baby institution.

Last month, Cork City Council granted permission to Estuary View Enterprises 2020 to demolish almost a dozen buildings at Bessborough in Blackrock, to make way for the apartments.

Between 1922 and 1998, the Sacred Heart nuns ran Bessborough, and in 2021, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission reported 923 child deaths relating to the mother and baby institution.

However, with only burial records existing for only 64 of those children, the commission concluded it was “highly likely” burials had occurred at Bessborough.

The Bessborough estate, with its centrepiece the late 18th-century manor, originally covered 200 acres.

In the 1970s, the then Cork Corporation purchased 140 acres of the lands, which were later developed as Mahon Industrial Park, LoughMahon Technology Park, and Mahon Retail Park, as well as a section of the N40 road.

Apartments

The 140 apartments which have been granted planning permission are proposed by Estuary View Enterprises 2020, which was behind two previous planning attempts on the site.

The current plans would see the units spread across three blocks, with two blocks comprising a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments. The proposed third block comprised a mix of 47 one- and two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit.

Separate appeals have been lodged with An Coimisiún Pleanála by the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home Support Group and by Labour Party city councillor Peter Horgan.

In its appeal, the Bessborough group described the site as one of “profound national significance”. It said any groundworks there would risk disturbing human remains.

Landscape of trauma

Mr Horgan, in his appeal, quoted the Bessborough group as previously noting that the site contains “a landscape of trauma, loss, and unmarked burials”, with survivor testimony indicating burials across the site including the locations of the proposed development.

The appeals come after a failed planning application by the developer last July, when An Coimisiún Pleanála ruled that the proposal did not meet the planning requirements for unit mix.

Just 1% of apartments in the scheme named The Farm were three-bed units, compared to the target of 28% set by Cork City Council.

The commission refused the previous set of plans exclusively because of its unit mix and that it did not adopt a recommendation by its own planning inspector that the application should also be refused planning permission because it was not satisfied that the site was not previously used as a children’s burial ground.

The inspector, Colin McBride, said such a reason had been the basis for An Bord Pleanála to reject two earlier proposed developments in other parts of the Bessborough lands.

The planning commission is due to decide on the appeal by July 9.