Catherine Corless ‘absolutely horrified’ by Bessborough apartments plan 

Tuam historian Catherine Corless is “absolutely horrified” that planning permission has been granted to build apartments on the site of the former mother-and-baby institution at Bessborough.

“The thought of building apartments on land where so many children died is just totally disrespectful, and I’m shocked that Cork City Council would grant planning there,” she said.

Ms Corless came to national prominence in 2014, when her research revealed that 796 children had died in the former mother-and-baby institution in Tuam, which was run by the Bon Secours religious order between 1925 and 1961.

Subsequent excavation proved that many of the children were buried illegally in a disused sewerage system.

In February, Cork City Council granted planning permission for the building of 140 apartments on what members of the survivor community say should be sacred ground, a decision which is currently being appealed.

Between 1922 and 1998, the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ran Bessborough as a mother and baby home and, in 2021, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission reported that 923 child deaths had occurred relating to Bessborough.

Burial records

Burial records exist for only 64 of those children, with the commission concluding it was “highly likely” that some of the remaining 859 children were buried on Bessborough’s grounds.

Ms Corless told The Echo she was “appalled” at the decision to grant planning for apartments at Bessborough, despite repeated calls from survivors that the land be made a site of national remembrance.

“I am just absolutely horrified that the city council gave planning permission, it’s just horrific,” she said.

“Once these apartments are built, they’ll keep on building, and it’s just wrong, it’s just wrong, and I cannot fathom why it’s happening.”

Ms Corless said she had thought there would be “an absolute outcry from Cork people” after the Irish Examiner published in 2021 the names of many of the children who died at Bessborough or after discharge from there.

Lack of concern

“It was there in your face when you see all the names in print, but I was shocked really at the lack of concern,” Ms Corless said.

“If there was one baby missing there would be an outcry but, as the numbers go up, it seems to be a sideshow and it just doesn’t seem to matter. I still believe that’s because the children were illegitimate, they weren’t thought twice about at the time. That was the mentality, and it’s still very much alive.”

Ms Corless said she would support calls to create a memorial site on the Bessborough grounds, but only after it had been forensically searched for human remains.

“A remembrance park sounds good, but only after they find the babies. They have to be there somewhere,” she said.

“It’s like Tuam. They wanted to put up a memorial for the little ones, that’s what I was getting the whole time, but I couldn’t stand for that without finding the babies.

“First of all, find the babies in Bessborough. I reckon that they have to be there somewhere, and I think the Bessborough nuns know more than we have been told.

“They can’t build on that site until they find the babies. To my mind, it’s wrong. It’s just wrong.”

A decision by An Coimisiún Pleanála on two separate appeals against planning permission at Bessborough is due on July 9.