Planning permission upheld for apartments on Bessborough mother and baby home site

Planning permission granted by Cork City Council for the building of apartments on the site of Ireland’s last mother and baby institution has been substantially upheld by An Coimisúin Pleanála.

Permission had been granted in February by the council to Estuary View Enterprises for the building of 140 apartments on the site of the former Bessborough mother and baby institution, and the commission upheld permission for 106 apartments.

The commission’s decision upholds 75% of the planning permission granted by the council, but omits Block C, which had been proposed to consist of nine one-bedroom apartments and 25 two-bed apartments over three storeys.

The decision comes despite strong concerns from survivors that the remaining 60 undeveloped acres of the former 200-acre Bessborough site may contain the remains of some of the hundreds of babies who died at the institution or upon discharge.

Bessborough was run as a mother and baby institution by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary between 1922 and 1998, and in 2021, the Mother and Baby Homes Commission reported 923 child deaths relating to Bessborough.

With burial records existing for only 64 of those children, the commission found that it was “highly likely” some of the missing 859 children were buried on the institution’s grounds.