There have been calls for a fresh investigation at Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home after the discovery of what’s believed to be mass baby graves.
A team of engineers who surveyed the Bon Secours plot in Tuam has reported similar anomalies at the Co Tipperary site which could be mass burial plots.
An expert survey by TST Engineering Company pinpointed several locations in the grounds of the abbey with likely human activity beneath the surface.
Almost 1,100 babies died at the home in Roscrea between 1931 and 1969 – but only 42 infant remains were found by the Commission of Inquiry.
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Philomena Lee, whose story inspired the Oscar-nominated movie Philomena starring Judi Dench, is among the survivors who have called for a fresh probe of the site.
The Angel Plot was scanned by the Commission four years ago, but experts from TST Engineering say their findings do not tally with the 2019 report.
TST director Simone Demurtas, who was involved in the Tuam probe into 796 babies’ bodies in a septic tank, said further investigation is now required in Roscrea.
He told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “Normally in a field like this you should see nothing, you see a flat layer of soil. But an anomaly, which is a target underground, leads me to believe that there is something underneath.
“There are two drainage systems in that field very close to each other. I don’t understand why such a small field has such a large drainage system.”
Rachael Keogh, of the Bring Them Home campaign, who fundraised to have the independent scan carried out, said the new information is of serious concern. She said: “They excavated 10 per cent of that area, and in that 10 per cent they found 42 baby remains. But they never mentioned anything about the new findings that we’ve found... so that’s really concerning.”
She said the engineers’ geo scans suggest the anomalies could be mass graves on a scale “bigger than Tuam”.
Rachael added: “There is a very large anomaly, 20 metres in length and two metres wide. There are two other anomalies connected to that, and then on the right-hand side of the Angels Plot, there are loads of anomalies on different levels.
“The engineers say that they would suspect there are graves.”
According to the TST report technicians found “one bigger deep anomaly” up to 1.9 metres deep near the centre of the field.
It also identified “an extensive anomaly called ‘Area of Depression’... characterised by strong vertical [45 degree] layers. This area can have two interpretations – one is natural ground layers... or the limits of a big/deep hole/trench done by humans”.
Mr Demurtas said what he found at Sean Ross Abbey was different to Tuam because “here the anomalies are spread throughout the field”. He said the 2019 scan “missed this” and found just one anomaly which they considered to be land drainage.
Mr Demurtas added: “They used a different system [to us], they only penetrated the ground to one metre, we went to two metres. They could be mass graves, it’s not 100 per cent certain until you dig, that’s the only way to find out what it is.
“There is already a story on this site. We know there are bodies and graves.”
The Department of Children said it was not aware of the circumstances or findings of the GPR scan carried out by TST Engineering in May 2023.
The Department added: “The final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes included a report of forensic archaeological investigations at Sean Ross Abbey Mother and Baby Home Children’s Burial Ground.
“This report, which was commissioned on foot of concerns about the burial ground in Sean Ross Abbey, found that infant human burials were located across the children’s burial ground, and these had not been impacted by any utilities or drainage works.
“The report notes that coffins, or evidence of coffins, were located with the majority of remains [84 per cent)]”
The Irish Sunday Mirror understands that Minister Roderic O’Gorman has given the green light for Sean Ross Abbey to be scanned, but no timeline has been given.
Rachael Keogh has written to the United Nations alleging continued human rights violations and “lack of effective remedy” for survivors of Mother and Baby Homes.
She said: “I believe the Mother and Baby Homes are crime scenes.
“Last year in Canada they found 200 babies in unconsecrated ground and straight away that was declared a crime scene.
“We have 9,000 babies in Ireland [in unmarked graves] and nobody is batting an eyelid.
“The EU need to step in. They need to investigate the whole thing.”
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