IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Elaine Loughlin
Political Reporter
The Government has come under pressure to carry out excavations at the site of Bessborough Mother and Baby Home where hundreds of infants died.
Calls have been made in the Dáil to carry out examinations at the Cork site in the wake of the revelations of mass burial chambers at the Tuam facility.
AAA-PBP TD Mick Barry said 470 infants and 10 women had died between 1934 and 1953 at Bessborough. He claimed the nuns took a “business decision” not to give each child a marked grave as it would make a bad impression on Americans visiting to adopt babies from the home.
He told the Dáil that of 180 babies born over one year, 100 died. “One in five of those who died in the 1934 to 1953 period died of marasmus, that is, severe malnutrition.”
Mr Barry gave graphic accounts of “a house of pain” where mothers in childbirth were “denied pain relief and women who suffered vaginal tearing in childbirth were refused stitching as punishment for their sins”.
During statements on the commission of inquiry into mother and baby homes he said he had been contacted by a survivor of the home who expressed his “strong opinion” that not all of the babies were buried in the “tiny” angels burial plot at Bessborough.
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