A sleep-out protest is to be staged at Sean Ross Abbey in Co Tipperary by campaigners to highlight the fate of the 1,090 babies who died in the former mother and baby home near Roscrea.
Limerick woman, Ann Connolly and Roscrea man Michael Donovan and other survivors of Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home are organising a sleep-out protest at the Angels Plot on Friday, October 10.
Sean Ross Abbey was operated as a mother and baby home by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary from the 1930s to 1970, and inspired the Oscar nominated movie Philomena, starring Judie Dench.
A Tipperary campaign group, called ‘We Are Still Here’, has records which show that 1,090 babies died there, along with 23 women aged 18 upwards.
Ann Connolly said the protest is for the babies, including the “many still unaccounted for” and “the 23 young girls who also died there”.
“Despite this, the government refuses to excavate the site, even though Sean Ross Abbey is larger than Tuam and has even more children buried there,” Ms Connolly said in a statement.
“Instead, the Government continues to hide behind words like 'manifestly inappropriate burials' as an excuse to do nothing.”
Ms Connolly claims they had invited Minister for Children, Norma Foley, to come to Sean Ross Abbey and that the minister had agreed to meet the group in September.
“But when the time came we received an email asking myself and Michael O'Donovan to come to Leinster House instead, as she was too busy to travel to Sean Ross Abbey.
“We are happy to wait until she has the time to come, because we want to show her the Abbey itself - the harsh conditions where mothers and children lived, the rooms where mothers gave birth, the Angels Plot, and the part of the site where scans have already shown anomalies.”
Ms Connolly also said the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, who ran Sean Ross Abbey, have refused to answer emails and “will not cooperate”.
She claimed the government has “locked important files away for 30 years” which means that “many mothers and possibly children” will be dead before the truth is released.
She said they had even written to the Vatican and asked the Pope to intervene “to get whatever information the order holds”.
“The government and the religious orders were complicit in running these homes, and today both are still traumatising women by refusing to provide answers or take responsibility,” Ms Connolly added.
“Elderly mothers are running out of time. They deserve answers before it is too late. Every delay adds to their pain.”
In July of this year, campaigners called on the government to unearth a tank in Sean Ross Abbey which they believe may contain human remains.
The call followed four important reports relating to survivors of institutional abuse, published on June 24.
The First Annual Report of the Special Advocate for Survivors of Institutional Abuse, by Patricia Carey, gives a detailed account of her activities, and an overview of the feedback received from survivors.
Mr Donovan and Ms Connolly, of ‘We are Still Here’, say the redress scheme needs to go further as it is not fit for purpose.
“We had a meeting with Patricia Carey,” said Mr Donovan. The four issues they raised need to go back to the Minister, he said.
One of the concerns, raised by an Al Jazeera documentary called Ireland’s Mother and Baby Home Scandal (Part 2), concludes that there is a tank under the Angel’s Plot cemetery at Sean Ross, which may contain the remains of babies and mothers who died there often in grim circumstances.
“We want to rule in, or we want to rule out. I don’t know whether there are babies in that tank, but we want the lid taken off the so-called tank that’s in the Angel’s Plot,” said Mr Donovan.
Scanners using ground penetrating radar show four ‘anomalies’ in the area, and human bones have been found at the site, but campaigners say the government isn’t really listening. A private landowner, Tony Donnell, has been “very good” to the survivors group, and is amenable to the land being excavated.
“And the redress is absolutely scandalous,” said Mr Donovan. “The 180 days has to go, it’s ridiculous. If you were in Sean Ross for two months, you should be entitled to it. They’re saying you’d have to have been in for six months to qualify.
“That rule is wrong. You could come out of these places with trauma if you were there two months. It has been proven – there were surveys done in America.”
Ann Connolly was born in Sean Ross Abbey in 1968, and adopted that year, despite her birth mother not wanting to give her up. Ann was brought back and forth to the home as a baby before her mother finally signed the papers.
Ann says: “I would like them to excavate Sean Ross Abbey. I don’t know why they’re not. If this was something that happened today, there would be absolute uproar. I just think women are out there at the end of their lives and they’re going to die without knowing where their children are.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Children said they Department and Minister Foley “are very conscious of the pain caused by the death of children who were resident in the former Mother and Baby institution at Sean Ross Abbey”.
“The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes was established to investigate issues associated with Mother and Baby institutions, including deaths and burial arrangements at the institution,” the spokesperson said.
"The findings in relation to each institution, including the former institution at Sean Ross Abbey, are set out in its comprehensive and wide-ranging reports. This includes a 69-page chapter on the former institution at Sean Ross Abbey which contains details on the recorded causes of deaths of children there.
The spokesperson added that the Commission was satisfied that a forensic report provided “clear evidence that the coffined remains of children under the age of one are buried in the designated burial ground and that it did not consider that further investigation was warranted”.