Court to reconsider baby’s death shortly after birth at Bessborough after conceding High Court action
High Court Reporters
Cork South Coroner’s Court is to reconsider holding an inquest into the death of a baby boy shortly after his birth at Bessborough mother and baby home.
The move comes after the court’s chief coroner conceded a High Court challenge brought by the infant’s mother.
Madeleine Bridget Marvier was 17 years old when she was admitted to the home in Blackrock, Cork City, in August 1960.
About two months later, she gave birth to her son, William Gerard Walsh.
In December 1960, at 37 days old, William died at St Finbarr’s Hospital, Cork.
In October 2023, Ms Marvier wrote to the Cork South Coroner asking that an inquest be held into the death of her son, on the grounds that his death was violent or unnatural, or was unexpected and from unknown causes, or was in suspicious circumstances.
This request was refused.
Ms Marvier brought judicial review proceedings against the Cork South Coroner in July, challenging the refusal, claiming that a conclusion that the infant’s death is beyond doubt “cannot reasonably be drawn or inferred” and is “without basis” in the evidence she had put before the coroner. Ms Marvier brought the case alongside her daughter, Carmel Cantwell.
On Tuesday, barrister Cillian Bracken, appearing for Ms Marvier, told Mr Justice Micheál O’Higgins that an order could be made on consent quashing the coroner’s decision to refuse to hold an inquest into the infant’s death.
Mr Bracken said an order could also be made remitting the case to the deputy coroner for Cork South for reconsideration.
An order against the coroner for his clients’ legal costs could also be made, counsel said.
Barrister Eoin Sreenan, appearing for the coroner, said his client was consenting to the reliefs.
Mr Justice O’Higgins granted the orders.
Bessborough mother and baby home was operated by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, an order of nuns, between 1922 and 1998.
In 2021, the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes concluded that 923 babies associated with Bessborough died during that time, but burial records for only 64 of them could be found.
According to Ms Marvier’s court documents, her son’s death certificate – which she obtained in 1999 – attributed his death to renal abscess septicaemia, sepsis caused by an abscess in the kidney.
Ms Marvier said she was previously unaware of the cause attributed to her son’s death.
In 2019, after obtaining documents from Tusla, Ms Marvier learned for the first time that William had been buried at Carr’s Hill Cemetery in Cork, within the jurisdiction of the Cork South Coroner.
In October 2023, Ms Marvier wrote to the Cork South Coroner asking that an inquest be held into the death of her son, on the grounds that his death was violent or unnatural, or was unexpected and from unknown causes, or was in suspicious circumstances.
Included in her request was a report compiled by Dr Michael Munro, a consultant neonatologist, who opined that the death certificate’s stated cause of death was speculative and conjectural.
In January this year, the coroner wrote to Ms Marvier refusing the request to hold an inquest.
The coroner stated William did not die in a violent or unnatural manner, and on the balance of probabilities, did not die unexpectedly or from unknown causes, Ms Marvier’s court papers stated.
Ms Marvier’s case noted the coroner’s purported assumption that in the absence of any record of a postmortem examination of the infant, there was no doubt around the cause of death of the infant, and therefore, there was no sufficient evidence available now to cast doubt on the death certificate’s cause of death.
Ms Marvier claimed that the coroner made this assumption while at the same time acknowledging that medical records pertaining to the infant’s care at St Finbarr’s are now unavailable, and that it was not known what medical skills were employed in establishing William’s cause of death.
