"Historical erasure" - Irish American org condemns Bessborough development plans

The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), the oldest and largest Irish American Catholic organization in the US, has formally condemned the decision by An Coimisiún Pleanála, Ireland's independent planning commission, to permit residential development on the grounds of the former Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Blackrock, Co Cork.

The AOH said in a statement on Friday, July 10, that it maintains that any construction on the site prior to a full, independent forensic investigation is a "failure of due diligence and an active erasure of historical memory."

The AOH said it has issued an urgent appeal to Irish authorities, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Ireland's Ambassador to the US Geraldine Byrne Nason, all Irish Consulates, and the leaders of all Irish political parties, demanding an immediate halt to development.

The organization argues that the decision to approve construction based on an "absence of evidence" regarding burials in specific sectors of the site is "logically flawed and morally untenable."

“An absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, particularly when the Commission itself acknowledges that the historical record is incomplete,” said Sean Pender, National President of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

“To use that uncertainty as justification for irreversible development turns a failure to conduct a proper forensic investigation into the justification for proceeding.

"We cannot escape the painful conclusion that these children are once again being buried in undignified anonymity so that a shameful chapter of Ireland's history can be buried with them under the foundations of a housing complex.”

The Bessborough site is the final resting place of 859 children who remain unaccounted for. The AOH asserts that for many Americans of Irish descent whose personal and family stories are intertwined with these institutions, the site is not an abstraction; it is a place demanding the same respect accorded to any ancestral burial ground.

The AOH says it is calling for the immediate preservation of the Bessborough grounds as a permanent memorial. The organization has pledged to continue "its advocacy to ensure the dead are given the dignity they were denied in life, framing this not merely as an Irish obligation, but as a standard of common humanity."