Archaeologists Search For Unbaptized Babies' Unmarked Graves - UPDATES

[Bianca]

A Queens University archaeologist inspects the ground were a mass grave of unbaptised babies close to Milltown Cemetery, West Belfast, Northern Ireland, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2009.

Northern Ireland archeologists began a search Tuesday for unmarked mass graves containing hundreds of stillborn babies and infants, whom the Catholic Church long buried in anonymous plots on the edge of a Belfast cemetery.

(AP Photo/
Peter Morrison)

[Bianca]

                           Archaeologists Search For Unbaptized Babies' Unmarked Graves






By Shawn Pogatchnik
Associated Press Writer /
 February 10, 2009
DUBLIN—

Archaeologists began searching Tuesday for unmarked mass graves containing hundreds of unbaptized babies and infants buried by the Catholic Church on the edge of a Belfast cemetery.

Unlike many other Christian churches, the Catholic Church teaches that baptism is essential for a soul to enter heaven and therefore the ritual must take place as near to birth as possible. For decades, newborns and infants who die before baptism were deemed ineligible for salvation and were not buried on consecrated, or holy, ground.

Individual priests in Belfast began loosening that restriction in the 1980s as families demanded the right to bury their youngest loved ones in marked family plots.

"We're coming out of what we can only regard as a mistaken theology of a hundred years ago," said the Rev. John McManus, a Belfast priest who has been working with local families demanding that their children's resting place be mapped, marked and preserved. "People have been carrying the grief and burden of losing a child for decades. It's important we get this right."

Although Catholics have long believed that children who die without being baptized are with original sin and thus excluded from heaven, the Church has no formal doctrine on the matter. Theologians long taught that such children enjoy an eternal state of perfect natural happiness, a state commonly called limbo, but without being in communion with God.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI reversed centuries of that teaching by approving a report by the International Theological Commission, a Vatican advisory panel, that said there were "serious" grounds to hope that children who die without being baptized can go to heaven.

The report stressed that none of its findings should be taken as diminishing the need for parents to baptize infants.

The records of Milltown Cemetery in overwhelmingly Catholic west Belfast indicate that hundreds of unbaptized newborns and infants were interred in unmarked mass graves on the western edge of the cemetery -- land that the church sold nearly a decade ago to a nature reserve.

Since October, mothers and other relatives of a few dozen of the dead infants have protested at the cemetery fence.

The families,under the umbrella name Relatives for the Milltown Babies, are demanding that church leaders apologize, identify the grave sites, and return the land to the cemetery with new grave markings.

Their pressure spurred Catholic authorities to ask the government's Environment Department to intervene with archaeological experts from Queen's University of Belfast. Church leaders have declined to make any formal public response pending the archaeologists' findings.

The search is expected to cover an acre (0.4 hectares) of woods and grassland within the nature reserve, called the Bog Meadows, and run through Friday. The archaeologists -- some of whom previously helped search for hidden graves of Irish Republican Army victims, an issue in Northern Ireland's peace process -- are using ground-penetrating radar to identify grave sites and will not disinter any remains.

The Ulster Wildlife Trust -- which in 2001 acquired the supposedly unused land from Milltown Cemetery in a 999-year lease deal -- says it will transfer any land found to contain graves back to the cemetery.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency's assistant director of built heritage, John O'Keeffe, cautioned families of the dead that the search would not lead to any positive identifications of specific remains.

"We will not be able to provide any greater degree of certainty than already exists about the precise location of specific individuals thought to have been buried here," said O'Keeffe, who asked media to stay away from the search operation "given the sensitivities around this, particularly for the families involved."

------

On the Net:

Bog Meadows, http://www.ulsterwildlifetrust.org/nature+reserves/Bog+Meadows/

© Copyright 2009 Associated Press.

[Bianca]

                                         Radar search for babies' graves 






 
BBC NEWS
Ireland
Feb. 11, 2009


Land that used to belong to Milltown cemetery will be searched for graves.

Archaeologists are to begin using radars on Tuesday to search for graves, including those of babies and infants, at a wildlife park in west Belfast.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency said it was asked by the Catholic Church to search land at Bog Meadows.

The land was once part of Milltown cemetery. It was bought by the Ulster Wildlife Trust some years ago.

The environment agency said the site would not be excavated due to the "sensitive nature" of the issue.

"We will not be digging up any graves that are identified," said the agency's Dr John O'Keeffe.

"The results of this investigation should help all those concerned in the future management of the land."

The survey, which is being carried out with the help of Queen's University, is due to be completed on Friday.

Relatives of babies buried in the land due to be searched believe there are hundreds of unmarked graves.

A report will be prepared by the archaeologists within two weeks of the completion of the search. It will be made public after families have been informed.

[Bianca]

                                         Survey of graves at Milltown Cemetery






GERRY MORIARTY,
Northern Editor
Irish Times
Feb. 10, 2009

THE NORTHERN Ireland Environment Agency has confirmed it is to carry out a site inspection survey of land around Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast to identify possible graves in which non-baptised babies were interred.

Archaeologists using special radar equipment are to begin work today at the site to identify possible graves of the infants and other people. The work is being undertaken on behalf of the agency by the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork at Queen’s University, Belfast.

The agency was asked by the Catholic Church’s Down and Connor diocese on behalf of the trustees of Milltown Cemetery to use its expertise to clarify what area was used in the past for the burials.

The lands to be investigated are leased by the Ulster Wildlife Trust who obtained them from the Diocese of Down and Connor and are outside the present legal boundaries of the cemetery.

“We are undertaking an archaeological investigation of these lands to help clarify what area is likely to have been used for human burial in the past,” explained agency assistant director of built heritage Dr John O’Keeffe.

“We recognise the sensitive nature of the issues that have been raised about the present use of these lands, and therefore we will conduct a survey that does not involve any archaeological excavation. We will not be digging up any graves that are identified,” he added.

“This is a special case where archaeological expertise can be used to help inform the future management of lands at Milltown Cemetery and the Bog Meadows. The results of this archaeological investigation will be made publicly available. Given the sensitivities around this, particularly for the families involved, I would urge that the team be allowed to carry out this survey without any interference.”



This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

[Bianca]

                                          Hunt begins for baby graves in Belfast






By Matthew McCreary
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Belfast Telegraph

There were emotional scenes at a west Belfast cemetery yesterday as work began to locate the graves of a large number of babies who may have been buried in a nearby nature reserve.

The search began yesterday as scientists used radar devices to search an area of around an acre in the Bog Meadows Nature Reserve beside Milltown cemetery.

The land was once part of the cemetery, but was taken over by the Ulster Wildlife Trust in 2001.

Anxious relatives of deceased infants looked on yesterday as the teams began their work.

Among them was Eileen Strong, whose first-born son is believed to be among those buried at the site.

“My son was born in 1968 and died when he was 30 hours old,” she said last night.

“I didn’t know where he was buried for so many years. About eight or nine years ago I decided to try and find him. I came to this graveyard so many times but we didn’t know where he was.”

Mrs Strong, who explained that women didn’t to go to funerals at that time, was eventually shown the possible site of her son’s burial by a gravedigger.

“It was a complete and utter rubbish tip,” she said.

“I’m so distressed, it’s something you don’t get over.”

Also present at the cemetery was Donna Hanvey, whose brother Michael is also believed to be among those buried at the site.

She said she was devastated to find out her brother had not been buried on consecrated

ground.

“I was told he was among the trees in the Ulster Wildlife Trust,” she said.

“I couldn’t speak, I was devastated.”

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency said it had been asked to carry out the work by the Catholic Church on behalf of the Trustees of Milltown Cemetery to help find what land was used in the past to bury infants.

Estimates of the numbers buried at the site range from around 200 to several thousands, with many of the remains expected to be infants or newborns.

The issue came to light following protests by residents who insisted thousands of unmarked graves lay outside the Milltown Cemetery boundary.

The stretch of land was leased to the Ulster Wildlife Trust by the Diocese of Down and Connor in 2001. Relatives say they were not consulted.

A specialist Queen’s University team helping to conduct the searches have carried out similar investigations in the past. They were involved in the search for Jean McConville, one of the IRA ‘disappeared’.

[Bianca]

             

              Relatives and their friends of buried babies

[Bianca]

[Bianca]

[Bianca]

                                      Police hunt for boys' bodies at nature reserve






THE INDEPENDENT.CO.UK
Tuesday, 24 February 2009

Police were carrying out a dig at the edge of a nature reserve today after a search for unmarked
babies' graves may have uncovered further human remains.


The police were called in and are now digging specifically for the graves of John Rodgers, aged 13,
and Thomas Spence, 11, who went missing from their Belfast homes in 1974.

Eight years ago a dig at the home of a convicted paedophile in the area yielded nothing.

The authorities said no discovery had yet been made, but confirmed they were investigating an
anomaly which was detected during a survey of the site.

Today's dig came after experts surveyed land at the Bog Meadows reserve in west Belfast in a bid
to find unmarked infants' graves which originally lay inside the boundaries of a nearby cemetery.

Land owned by the Catholic Church in Milltown Cemetery was sold to the Ulster Wildlife Trust, which
is responsible for the reserve.

But campaigners later expressed fears that the land held the unmarked graves of hundreds of infants buried between the 1940s and 1980s, prompting surveys of the site.

Today, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said: "Police are carrying out further investigations surrounding an anomaly which arose during a survey of ground adjacent to Bog Meadows and Milltown Cemetery.

"These investigations now involve an excavation of the area where the anomaly was detected on the eastern boundary of Bog Meadows."

Sinn Fein West Belfast MP Gerry Adams said he hoped the survey and search would be resolved quickly for the benefit of the families involved.

The party said its representatives had met the relatives and other agencies involved, including the PSNI, Ulster Wildlife Trust and the Catholic Church.

Mr Adams said: "Following a completion of a recent survey by Queen's University, we fully expect that
it will be possible in the near future to resolve all of the concerns raised by bereaved families.

"We are aware that the survey has identified an issue around a small piece of ground which the PSNI wish to investigate further.

"We hope that this work can be completed quickly with sensitivity and discretion."

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), which oversaw the survey, confirmed the operation had led to today's searches.

"During a site inspection survey of land around Milltown Cemetery in Belfast to locate the unmarked graves of babies and infants, Queen's University archaeologists, on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, came across an anomalous image," said the NIEA.

"That is being investigated by the PSNI."

Queen’s University archaeologists, who are using ground penetrating radar to locate the babies and adults whose final resting places once lay within the boundaries of the cemetery, have now reported finding an “anomalous image”. The PSNI is believed to be working under the guidance of the Coroner’s Office to probe the finding.

A spokesman for the cemetery trustees said: “They seem to have found something which they think there ought to be further investigation into. They have located something that is not the norm in the ground and they feel they need to look further into it in the interests of finding out.”

A spokesman for Northern Ireland Environment Agency, which is working with QUB to locate graves, said: “During a site inspection survey of land around Milltown Cemetery in Belfast to locate the unmarked graves of babies and infants, Queen's University archaeologists on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency came across an anomalous image. That is being investigated by the PSNI.”

A report on the full extent of the graves in Bog Meadows is expected within weeks and this is likely to spark negotiations between the Milltown Cemetery trustees and the Ulster Wildlife Trust on the transfer of land.

Plans for a memorial garden commemorating the people buried on the site — who include infants and newborn babies — have been mooted and relatives who believe their loved ones were interred there have begun designing a monument.

Yesterday, contractors employed by the Ulster Wildlife Trust moved onto the site to begin felling trees at a spot within the nature reserve where preliminary survey results suggest there are graves. While any land transfers have yet to be agreed, the trust says it has embarked on the tree felling as a goodwill gesture.



This article is taken from the Belfast Telegraph