Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is frightening. The report also notes there are 830 missing bodies and refers to misleading affidavits from nuns. There surely has to be some repercussions for it. It bewilders me. It states in the report that there is a small burial ground in the grounds of Bessborough that was opened in 1956 for members of the congregation. The report notes that it seems to have been assumed by former residents and advocacy groups that this is also where the children who died in Bessborough are buried as there are occasional meetings and commemoration ceremonies held there. I go every year, and three years ago I met an elderly gentleman who thought he was the only person ever to be adopted into Canada from Ireland. He did not get any answers and unfortunately he is now dead. This is what I want to get across to the Minister. We can do all these reports and people can understand. Ideas have been mooted about putting up plaques and stuff, but I spoke to many survivors or victims, whichever we might call them, and they do not want that. They have some horrific memories. What they want is to be heard and understood.

The report goes on to state that the commission finds that affidavits supplied by the nuns who ran the Sacred Heart homes in Bessborough, Sean Ross Abbey and Castlepollard regarding burials were in many respects speculative, inaccurate and misleading. It is unbelievable, and still nobody has been punished for this. On the reality of what this has done to families and their mental health, a very close friend of mine was in Bessborough. It is well documented. She was forced to breastfeed her child while facing a wall. That child was torn from her chest. It took her 43 years and the State did everything to deflect any services or help. It was through pure luck and pure determination that eventually she found her son. This is happening to hundreds and possibly thousands of people. I am afraid about the Retention of Records Bill 2019. To bury everything for 75 years is killing off four generations of these people and it is an atrocity what the State is doing to them.

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