Cork mother and baby home children buried in unmarked graves as late as 1990

Children who died at the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home were buried in unmarked graves as recently as 1990, it has been revealed.

The home, in the Cork city suburb of Blackrock, took in thousands of women and children throughout the twentieth century. The remains of at least 21 children were found in three graves at the city's St Finbarr’s cemetery, the Irish Examiner reports. One unmarked plot contained the remains of four babies, a boy and three girls. The last child to buried there was a girl who died in early infancy in 1990 at St Finbarr's Hospital but who was under the care of the Bessborough home, her death certificate showed. The plot this baby girl was buried in was owned by St Anne’s Adoption Society, an organisation that arranged the adoption of babies born to unmarried mothers to families in the UK. Another plot in the cemetery contains the remains of 16 children who died between 1957 and 1978, but is only marked with one name. The third grave contained the remains of another girl who was in the care of Bessborough when she died in 1990. The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, which ran the home, has said it is cooperating with the Mother and Baby Homes Commission. The commission has called for anyone with information relating to the burial of children under the care of the Bessborough home between 1922 and 1998 to come forward to assist in its investigations.