State ‘should help find these children’s bodies’, but Govt won’t commit to excavating Bessborough [Video]

THE GOVERNMENT HAS again refused to commit to an excavation at the site of a former mother and baby institution in Bessborough in Cork, despite the fact the burial place of over 800 children remains unknown.

Speaking in the Dáil today, Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman said there is a lack of consensus over whether or not the site should be excavated, noting that such a process would have a “significant cost”. 

A number of planning applications to build apartments at the site have been refused in recent years, including one in September.

The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes report, published in January 2021, found that some 923 infants died at Bessborough.

The institution, which was run by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, operated from 1922 until 1998.

The Commission only found burial records for 64 children, meaning the burial place of 859 …