[ad_1]
The order of nuns who ran the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork sold part of the site last year for 6.85 million euros, according to accounts on file with the Business Office.
Accounts from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Trust CLG say the property on the Bessborough estate was valued in July 2020 by Savills at a value of € 9.95 million.
Part of this property was sold around the same time for € 6.85 million, a price higher than the € 6.5 million value that Savills had put for it, according to the accounts.
In a statement to The Irish Times, the congregation said the proceeds of the € 6.85 million deal will be received over several years.
“We have received 2.64 million euros for the sale of the land in 2020. We will receive another 4 million euros for the sale of the property in sections over the next two years.
“The funds from this sale will be dedicated to supporting our present (29) and future retired sisters in Ireland, and our continued missionary work around the world, including Africa, the Philippines and Central America, all of which is now managed from our office. central. in the United Kingdom.”
The sale involved 17.6 hectares of land that is mainly zoned for landscape and preservation, the congregation said.
During 2020, the sisters donated 2.26 hectares, which included all buildings and parking spaces on the site now occupied by Bessborough Services, to the HSE.
Repair plan
The congregation preserved the convent and the grounds that surround it, which include the cemetery area.
The order is expected to be to contact the Government in relation to two reparation schemes that emerged from the report of the Investigation Commission on Maternal and Child Homes, for certain women who gave birth at home and certain children who were born at home. .
The congregation said it purchased the land in Cork in 1922 with funds from the congregation in the UK, including a £ 2,000 donation from the Archdiocese of Westminster, England.
In 2014, a general chapter decision was made that led to a process of streamlining services and goods, due in part to the decline in membership, the increase in returned missionaries, and the age profile of the congregation, “ but mainly to seek to be relevant in today’s changing world, ”said the congregation.
“In 2017, we announced the sale of some of our land in Bessborough, as described in the media at the time.
“We informed the Commission for the Investigation of Maternal and Child Homes of our plans to sell some land.
“We originally planned to use part of the proceeds from the sale for a purpose built facility for the current Bessborough services to continue. Unfortunately, the sale didn’t take place until the end of 2020. “
New center
By then, the congregation said, it had become clear that the proceeds from the sale would not be enough to build a new center, as planned.
“Rather than shutting down services, the decision was made to hand over our services from Bessborough in Cork to the HSE, thus protecting clients and the jobs of more than 100 staff members who would have been laid off.
“We also donated the property occupied by the services to the HSE for a value of approximately 1 million euros.”
According to the commission’s report, 923 babies died in Bessborough between its opening in 1922 and its closure in 1998, but the burial sites of only 64 of these children have been identified.
County Cork Mayor Mary Linehan Foley, born in the Bessborough house, has called for the granting of planning permission for apartments on part of the land of the old house to be suspended, until it can be established whether any of the babies is buried there. .
A spokesman for the congregation said the land sold last year is separate from the site where a developer seeks to build the apartments.
* This article has been corrected to remove an inaccurate reference to a monetary contribution to the compensation plan for industrial schools.
[ad_2]