OPEN LETTER TO THE IRISH GOVERNMENT

Please circulate.

Below is an open letter from the Save Bessborough Team to the Government of Ireland. Please circulate.

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LETTER BEGINS

OPEN LETTER TO THE GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND.

The subject of 859+ Bessborough children and 12 women who died in the former Mother & Baby Institution or shortly after in hospital is not acceptable to dismiss as Ireland’s historical past. We owe it to them to investigate why they died, and how and where they are buried.

Roderic O'Gorman's stance is not acceptable. Recently, we have heard about an independent investigation into burials at Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea. The latest scans have revealed anomalies that the Commission of Investigation didn't discover. In Bessboro we have been refused a Director of Authorised Intervention and it appears Roderic O'Gorman is supporting memorialisation without establishing the truth. We know that 64 of the 923 children that died were buried in some of Cork's municipal graveyards but the vast majority of children, 859 to be precise are still unaccounted for. There has been much controversy over the graveyard at Bessboro over the misinterpretation of a map. There is only one truth and we must find it in order to do the hundreds of children justice. Many children could've been saved with the right care and medical intervention, we owe it to them and their families to tell their story and not let others rewrite their history. These were Irish citizens, it's our duty to find out why they died.

• Why was an investigation into the high death rate cancelled in 1947 by the Chief Medical Officer, James Deeny?

• Why was the congregation allowed to continue doing it their way after James Deeny closed the institution for a year? The congregation still took in private patients and although they now quarantined sick children they still decided who did and didn't get medical attention thereafter.

• Why did a children's burial ground appear on a map in December 1949 but no child was buried there from this time and were being buried on the opposite side of Bessboro estate prior to this time?

• Why didn't the MBHCOI investigate all waterfront areas of Bessboro (which have now been cut off by the N40)?

The ice house is now filled in but originally could have been 100ft deep. The pond and its little islands. The area of the garden leading to the graveyard & the nuns' graveyard which they only started using in 1956? The congregation commissioned an archaeologist to examine this area but still the conclusion raises more questions and no answers to the children's burial place. He surmises that a large area of this tiny graveyard is empty and his theory is that some children may be buried underneath the nuns however it's unlikely to run into the numbers that are missing.

If anyone of you has lost a child you know how devastating it is and is something the rest of us don't want to imagine. A grief like no other absolutely changes your life, the devastation is compounded by never knowing what happened to your baby and today decades later mothers and families are still looking for answers. We will do everything in our power to do justice by those that died. We are asking Roderic O'Gorman to thoroughly investigate the lands at Bessboro to establish if any burials exist and in the absence of any burials found, preserve the remaining grounds in their memory for all the community to use.

LETTER ENDS

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