COULD THERE BE ANOTHER MASS GRAVE OF CHILDREN?
EXCLUSIVE: Commission orders dig at second mother and baby home over uncertainty at true number in Angels Plot
AN excavation has begun at a second mother and baby home to determine the true number of remains which lie in its ‘Angels Plot’, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal. The dig at the Sean Ross Abbey, near Roscrea in Co. Tipperary,
began on Monday morning following directions from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.
The Commission was established in 2015, after our sister paper, The Irish Mail on Sunday, exclusively revealed there were 796 children believed to be buried in a former septic tank on the grounds of the Tuam mother and baby home.
Diggers and archaeologists have now begun test excavations on the grounds of Sean Ross Abbey, from where Philomena Lee’s baby son was taken and sent for adoption in the US, as was depicted in the Oscar-nominated film Philomena.
The work will include removing some of the remains found on the site to a laboratory for examination to determine ages of those who died there, and the years in which they died.
Campaigners have tracked down death certs for 269 children whom they believe died in Sean Ross Abbey during its years of operation. However, concerns over poor
‘Commission has our full support’
record-keeping and allegations of the falsification of death certs means the true number is unknown. Survivors and campaigners say the real figure could be much higher.
In a statement to the Mail yesterday, a spokesperson for the Commission of Investigation confirmed the dig, saying: ‘Yes, a test excavation is under way. It started [on Monday] and is expected to last for about three weeks.’
A spokesman for the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary said: ‘The Commission is keeping us informed of all activity on the site and have our fullest support and cooperation.’
This week’s excavations came after a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) examination of the site, which took place in January.
A GPR scan is a heat-penetrating radar that can pick up anomalies and unusual movement underground without disturbing the soil. The results of these scans can then determine if a more intensive approach needs to be taken, such as an excavation or slit trenches.
A source told the Mail: ‘Diggers went in and the gardaí are around. The Commission are carrying out excavations after they did a scan on the ground.
‘The area is closed off and they have been in there working all day carrying out test excavation.’
Unlike the mass grave in Tuam, the children buried at Sean Ross Abbey are in what the nuns say is consecrated land which is marked out on the site maps of the home.
In Tuam, the children were buried in a defunct sewerage system.
In 2017, when asked about the Angels Plot, a spokesman for the nuns told the Mail: ‘It is public knowledge, and has been for decades, that there is a consecrated babies cemetery in the Sean Ross grounds, Roscrea. People who have links to Sean Ross visit this cemetery regularly. We’ll continue to deal directly with the Commission on all related matters.’
Babies ‘interred in coffins’
The spokesman added: ‘All the babies that regrettably died at Sean Ross were interred in coffins to a significant depth.’
When the Mail asked if the order could provide burial records for any of the children who died there, the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary said in a statement last night: ‘All our related records were passed to the HSE/Tusla in 2011. We will continue to deal directly with the Commission on all matters.’
This week’s excavation, which is due to continue for three to four weeks, is similar to the one which took place at the site on the Dublin Road housing estate in Tuam, Co. Galway, in October 2016 and in early 2017.
That excavation was also carried out under the direction of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.
The findings in Tuam by the Commission led to the announcement by Minister for Children Katherine Zappone on April 3, 2017, that a ‘significant quantity of human remains’ had been found in 17 of the 20 chambers at the site of the burials.
Sean Ross Abbey was in operation from 1930 to 1970 and was run by the same order that ran the Bessborough mother and baby home in Cork as well as Manor House in Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath.
Bessborough and Castlepollard are also being probed by the Commission of Investigation.
It is understood the site where children are believed to be buried in Bessborough could be next to be excavated. Preliminary examinations have taken place there – but no GPR scans have been carried out as yet.
Thousands of children were born in the religious-run institutions around the country to unmarried mothers. The children were either adopted or, in some cases, are believed to have been trafficked abroad.
Following The Irish Mail on Sunday breaking the story, 14 mother and baby homes are now under investigation by the Commission, as well as four county homes.
Survivors from the homes are calling for a full examination of all of the sites so that Ireland’s lost children can be located and given dignified burials.
The Commission has promised a large and comprehensive publication of burial arrangements next month.
WE should not forget that when our sister newspaper, The Irish Mail on Sunday, first revealed the possibility of the existence of a mass grave in Tuam there were fairly widespread attempts to pour cold water on the story.
Such a monstrous thing could not possibly have happened, was a common sentiment at the time. The newspaper did not give up with its investigation, however, and is due enormous credit because it continued to campaign relentlessly, undertaking its own geophysical survey and continuing to pursue the matter, both at home and internationally, so that the Government found itself under the kind of pressure that it could not ignore.
Minister Katherine Zappone also recognised the gravity of the situation. Refusing to do what so many others in her position might well have done, she didn’t play it safe and hope that the problem would disappear. Rather she tackled it head-on, ensuring that an excavation was undertaken so that, finally, we all learned the shocking truth about Tuam.
Since then, when it would once again have been less complicated for the minister to take the easier, less expensive route, she instead insisted on the fullest investigation and excavation possible. Presumably because she acknowledges the importance of uncovering the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
In reality this is precisely what is required – on a societal level and also, of course, for the sake of all the children who found themselves so utterly forsaken.
So with an excavation now under way at another mother and baby home, this time in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, even the possibility that another mass grave could be discovered is a horrifying prospect.
Once again there will be those who will argue that it is better to leave the past in the past, that nothing will be gained from any such discovery. That, however, would be the wrong approach.
We are a country, after all, that has learned the hard way just how corrosive and destructive a cover-up can be, how secrets can fester and continue to inflict damage from one generation to the other.
It is the job of the Commission of Investigation to uncover the truth about this Roscrea home – whatever that may prove to be.
As painful as this procedure is, in order to move on, we have to know the full truth.