Sleep-out protest at former Mother and Baby home near Laois border

Survivors of a Mother and Baby home near Laois are holding a sleep out protest to highlight that over 1,000 babies died there.

The survivors will sleep next to the burial site known as the Angel's Plot on the grounds of the former Mother and Baby Home at Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea in October.

Limerick woman, Ann Connolly and Roscrea man Michael Donovan and other survivors of Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home are organising a sleep-out protest at the Angels Plot in Sean Ross Abbey in October. Further details of the date and time will be published in the coming weeks.

“We are doing this to highlight the 1090 babies who died in Sean Ross Abbey, many of whom are still unaccounted for, and the 23 young girls who also died there”, the group said.

“Despite this, the government refuses to excavate the site, even though Sean Ross Abbey is larger than Tuam and has even more children buried there. Instead, the government continues to hide behind words like 'manifestly inappropriate burials' as an excuse to do nothing”, they said.

Roscrea's Michael Donovan and Teresa Collins, who was born in the former Mother and Baby Home, founded the We Are Still Here survivors group, who regularly host visitors to Roscrea with strong personal links to the facility.

“We invited Minister Norma Foley to come to Sean Ross Abbey. She originally agreed to meet us in September, but when the time came we received an email asking myself and Michael to come to Leinster House instead, as she was too busy to travel to Sean Ross Abbey”, Ann Connolly, a Limerick woman who was born at the facility and is fighting for answers told the Tribune.

“We are happy to wait until she has the time to come, because what we want 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.

“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”, she explained.

“That decision 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.

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"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.”