Baby deaths at Cork home subject of State inquiry

A State commission of inquiry is to investigate the number of baby deaths at a Cork Mother and Baby Home after it emerged that official records differ sharply from those held by the convent.

Bessborough, run by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, told the Department of Local Government and Public Health that 353 infants died at the Blackrock home between 1939 and 1944.

However, records held by the convent, reported by the Irish Examiner, show that 273 children died in its care, raising concerns that the remainder were given away in clandestine adoptions.

The inquiry will examine "as fully as possible" what happened at Bessborough over its near-100-year history, a spokeswoman for the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes told The Irish Times.

An internal Health Service Executive document from 2012, found by the Irish Examiner, expressed concern that death records were falsified at Bessborough in Blackrock in Cork city.

Bessborough files

All of the Bessborough files had been handed over by the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary to the HSE in 2011 and are now held by Tusla, the Child and Family Agency.

“We are very conscious of the issue and it’s something we will be investigating. We have seen some Bessborough files but we haven’t examined them in detail yet but we will be looking at them closely,” she said.

Ten thousand women passed through Bessborough files, she went on: “So it’s a huge task, and some of those files may include medical records which may also be able to assist us.”

The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary said it was “dealing directly” with the commission: “It would not be appropriate to enter into communication, other than with the commission at this time,” they said.

Historical documents were handed to the HSE in 2011, she said, adding that the order had hired a professional historian to carry out research on material available in public archives.

From the 1920s, all County Homes and Mother and Baby Homes filed a montly report to the Department of Local Government and Public Health on the numbers of unmarried mothers admitted and discharged.

Equally, monthly reports were sent about the children born, admitted or discharged from the homes, along with details of where these children were discharged to.

"We expect that these records have been retained by the authorities and will be passed to the commission," said the spokesman in response to a query from The Irish Times.