Anomalies detected underground in Roscrea's Angels Plot

SUBTERRANEAN scans of the burial plot in the former Mother and Baby Home in Sean Ross Abbey near Roscrea have discovered several anomalies, a campaigner revealed this week. 

Rachael Keogh, the founder of the 'Bring Them Home' campaign for independent investigations of former Mother and Baby Home institutions, has revealed that underground scans were performed by private contractors utilising the latest equipment.

The geophysical survey was carried out by the same group who uncovered the remains of 796 babies buried in a septic tank in Tuam Co. Galway. They carried out tests on the Angels Plot in Roscrea on May 9th and discovered what they described as anomalies which are most likely burial sites.

One large anomaly, which is 20-metres long and two-metres wide, runs along the marked perimeter of the burial site and the scans also detected several other smaller anomalies in the Angels Plot.  

"There needs to be an independent and objective investigation to find out what is buried there", Ms. Keogh said.

"Those babies deserve to be acknowledged and deserve a proper burial - they deserve the respect in death which they were so cruelly denied in life", she said.

She said several survivors of institutional abuse at the facility believe the remains of infants are "scattered all over Sean Ross Abbey" and that three areas have been identified as particularly worthy of an independent investigation.

Ms. Keogh said she feels it is "an issue of huge concern that a Commission of Investigation is investigating abuses that they are the perpetrators of and enablers of and who colluded with the Church" and said investigations must be independent of the State.

She accused the government of not providing full clarity on the results of previous scans and said she has drafted a complaint to the United Nations in Geneva and the European Court on Human Rights about her concerns.

She said survivor's testimonies have "gone missing" and that by releasing the final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes during the pandemic impeded the ability for survivor's to access support.

"They had to read the report online and weren't even given a physical copy of it", she said and added that she feels the EU needs to be charged with overseeing an investigation.

"The EU needs to step in and redo the whole Commission of Investigation independently and impartially - the survivors need answers and to be acknowledged for the abuses they suffered and they need restitution", Rachael Keogh said.

Simone Demurtas, Director of TST Engineering who carried out the scans at the Angels Plot, said his company discovered "multiple anomalies all over the field and because of that we recommend a full investigation" of the site.

The same week as his company carried out their independent geophysical scans the government gave the green light for further scans to be funded at the grounds of Sean Ross, which were requested by the 'We Are Still Here' survivors group.

A team of engineers from Limerick will be brought into the large site after government funding was approved to carry out the work. The Department of Children said on May 30: “I am pleased to inform you that the request of funding support by We Are Still Here of a proposal involving carrying out a geophysical survey at the site of the former Mother and Baby home institution in Sean Ross was approved.

The scanning of the land is a geophysical method of examining the ground by using radar pulses and is a non-intrusive way of surveying underneath the ground for human remains. Further slit trenches could be used should the results recommend further tests.

1,090 children are believed to have died at Sean Ross Abbey, which was run by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary from 1931 to 1969. Their causes of death included heart failure, influenza, marasmus, sun stroke and choking on porridge.