Tuam campaigner Catherine Corless: 'Do Cork people not care about Bessborough?'

The woman who uncovered the mass burial of children at the former mother and baby institution in Tuam has called on Cork people to help protect the grounds of the Bessborough former home, by asking: “Do Cork people not care?”

Researcher Catherine Corless, who discovered the names of 796 children who died at the Bons Secours institution in Galway and who had no burial records, said she is standing with survivors and campaigners who want to prevent development work on lands at Bessborough until further investigations are carried out.

The latest controversy centres on plans for 140 apartments on part of the former Bessborough estate.

Cork City Council granted planning permission earlier this year, subject to a series of conditions, including archaeological monitoring and specialist oversight, should any human remains be discovered during works.

In a video posted online, Ms Corless appealed for support for people who are searching for their loved ones.

The majority of the babies’ graves have never been located, but a small number of children were buried in St Finbarr’s cemetery.

Ms Corless said: “I feel more Cork people should join in.”

She continued:

“It’s inhumane to go putting up a housing estate on top of land that more than likely is holding the babies of over 900 children.”

“Like Tuam, nobody seems to care, because these little babies were ‘illegitimate’,” she said.

Ms Corless said: “It is wrong to go building on a site where babies are more than likely buried. Untruths have been told that the babies are going to Carr’s Hill. That can’t be so. They’re on the ground somewhere.”

She questioned how an excavator can dig on land where babies may be buried. “Do Cork people not care? All those little children and young babies. And does the Church not care? The Church has a moral duty, as well, to look into this and to do something about it.

“There has to be a test excavation in different areas. All you need to find is one little corpse, which will stop the planning. Please, Cork people, Church, and everyone else involved, just stop and think. Please do not go in and start that building until there’s a test excavation done.

“Until the babies are taken out. Find them and take them out. They have to be there.”

The former institution in Blackrock was operated by the Congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and was overseen by the State from 1922 until 1998.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes concluded that 923 children died at Bessborough, or after being transferred from there.