Sleep-out protest at Sean Ross Abbey

A number of survivors of the former Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home in Roscrea are organising a sleep-out protest at the Angels Plot on the site  on Friday, October 10, from 12 noon.

The former residents of the home are taking the action to highlight the 1,090 babies who died in Sean Ross Abbey, many still unaccounted for, and the 23 young girls who also died there while it operated between 1930 and 1969.

The survivors say the Government is refusing to act on their call to excavate the site, “even though Sean Ross Abbey is larger than the former mother and baby home in Tuam and has more children buried on the site.

“Instead”, they say, “the Government continues to hide behind words like ‘manifestly inappropriate burials’ as an excuse to do nothing.

They invited Minister Norma Foley to come to Sean Ross Abbey. They say she originally agreed to meet them in September, but that meeting never materialised as the minister was too busy to come to Roscrea and they turned down an alternative offer of a meeting in Dublin.

“We are happy to wait until she has the time to come, because what we want to do is to show her the Abbey itself - the harsh conditions where mothers and children lived, the rooms where mothers gave birth, the Angels Plot, and the part of the site where scans have already shown anomalies.”

The survivors added: “It is very easy to sit behind a desk in Leinster House and make decisions, but until you stand on this ground, you cannot truly understand what happened here.

“The control of the State and the religious orders continues today. The Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, who ran Sean Ross Abbey, have refused to answer our emails and will not cooperate.

“The government has locked important files away for 30 years - a decision that ensures many mothers (and possibly children) will be dead before the truth is released.

“We have even written to the Vatican and asked the Pope to intervene to get whatever information the order holds.

WOMEN TRAUMATISED

“The government and the religious orders were complicit in running these homes, and today both are still traumatising women by refusing to provide answers or take responsibility.

“Elderly mothers are running out of time. They deserve answers before it is too late. Every delay adds to their pain,” says one survivor Ann Connolly who with Michael O’ Donovan, a community activist in Roscrea, have been to the forefront in demanding rights for all survivors of the home.