Cork City Council backs motion to begin process of CPO of Bessborough site

Cork City Council has unanimously backed a motion to begin the process of a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) for the site of Bessborough in Cork.

Last week, An Coimisiún Pleanála upheld permission for Estuary View Enterprises to build 106 apartments at the former mother and baby home site in Bessborough, Co Cork.

Initially, Cork City Council had granted permission for the apartment developments but backed Labour Party Councillor Peter Horgan's motion for government intervention in a council meeting last night.

Councillor Horgan proposed "that this Council will seek to begin a process with the relevant Government Departments to CPO the entire land at Bessborough in order to make it a new public park and memorial to the history of the site."

Bessborough was opened in 1922 and was the last of the mother and baby institutions to shut down in 1998.

Over 923 children died at the site as a result of overcrowding, poor conditions and malnutrition. Only 64 of these graves have been identified on the site and it is believed by survivors and campaigners that remains are still on the site.

A statement by the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home Support Group says: "The local authority and the Government have failed to conduct an exhaustive investigation into the deaths and burial places of those deceased at Bessborough."

Councillor Horgan and campaigners say the Government could acquire the site of Bessborough through a CPO and preserve it as a public memorial for its survivors.

Yesterday, representatives from Labour, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, and the Green Party gathered at Cork City Hall to call for a government CPO on the site, organised by Labour Senator Laura Harmon and Councillor Horgan.

An Instagram post from yesterday by Labour reads: "We cannot build over our past.⁠ Bessborough is a sacred site and to build apartments over it is nothing more than to ignore the very conscience of our state.⁠ We will be reiterating our motion tonight in Cork City Council that Bessborough must go into state and public ownership."

 

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Support from Cork City Council does not automatically mean there will be a CPO on the Bessborough site but pressure on the government will be heightened.

"The State must intervene and I am calling on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to make plans for the State to acquire the land now or compulsory purchase the site," Senator Laura Harmon said.