Mother and Baby home survivors have been given ‘new hope’ after planning permission was refused for the construction of almost 100 apartments on the site of a former institution at Bessborough in Cork.
Mothers who escaped the institution say the decision by An Bord Pleanala highlights how Bessborough's "legacy of infant deaths and burials" still holds trauma for thousands of Irish women, children and their families.
A development company's proposal to build two apartment blocks on the site was rejected by the Board over concerns there were potential human remains and burials on the grounds of the former Mother and Baby Home. It was the company's second time being refused planning in the area.
There is an ongoing campaign calling for the State to purchase the land at Blackrock and memorialize the site for the estimated hundreds of babies and children lying in unmarked graves there.
One of the children believed to have been buried on the grounds of Bessborough is Evelyne O'Gorman. Evelyne was born to Limerick woman Ann O'Gorman in 1971 when Ann was just 17.
Ann told CorkBeo how nuns said that 'as a 'fallen woman' she had no right to see her child's remains or her grave after her death. She believes her daughter only lived for 20 minutes after being born, and her only memory of Evelyne is briefly hearing her cries before Ann fell unconscious after giving birth.
The Limerick woman was brought back to the Mother and Baby Home site in 1975. Four years after the birth of her daughter, she gave birth to her son and later escaped with the newborn to save him from being put up for adoption.
She told CorkBeo that she was "over the moon" to hear planning permission for the Bessborough residential development had been refused, saying: "It gave me hope that there would be no construction on it. I'll be 71 on Sunday, and I don't want this going on for many more years. It's what we've wanted for a very long time, and I hope to see a memorial there before I die."
Fellow survivor Catherine Coffey O'Brien from Tralee echoed calls for the State to purchase the land and so they can finally 'give all involved peace'. She described how she was "detained" at Bessborough in the 1980s but fled the home while pregnant to save herself and her son.
Catherine has been campaigning with fellow survivors against the planned development for the past few years. She stressed that Cork now has an opportunity to "set a precedent" for the rest of the country and "deal with a negative part of Irish history".
She said: "First of all we want to acknowledge and say thank you to the people of Cork, our legal team, politicians, ministers and the various organisations that have stood by us. It's been a very long road. This decision has vindicated those affected and legitimised the fact that children were born and died in Bessborough,
“What we were hoping for is for the State to issue a Compulsory Purchase Order on the land on its current market value, which is its agricultural value. Not its development value. Once paid, it could be handed over to the Cork City Council for a memorial, so they can build a wall around it and give us peace,
“Bessborough could be used as a framework for other sites in the country. Cork could set a precedent, that we can say that we’ve acknowledged and dealt with this negative part of our history."
Cork City Councillor Peter Horgan has agreed that the State should begin the process for a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for the lands at Bessborough to bring a "fitting conclusion" to decades of trauma associated with the area.
A report into the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home published in 2021 noted that during its 77 years of operation, 9,768 mothers entered the home and 8,938 children were born or reared there. It's feared 923 children died and as many as 600 babies may lie in unmarked graves in the area.
In its refusal notice to the project at Bessborough yesterday, An Bord Pleanála outlined it would be "premature to grant permission for this proposed development prior to establishing the extent of human remains and or burials, if any."
The site had been used as a Mother and Baby Home from 1922 and 1998. An Bord Pleana said that given its history, "such a matter extends beyond the scope of normal planning conditions."
Bessborough was owned and run by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and was regarded as one of the first ‘special’ institutions for unmarried mothers and their children.