Concern is mounting in Cork over the future of hundreds of graves on the grounds of a former Magdalene Laundry. Built in 1881, the Good Shepherd Convent was the site of an orphanage and one of Ireland's infamous Magdalene laundries until the late 1970s.
More than 300 nuns are buried in the grounds of the listed building as well as an unknown number of women who died while working in the laundry.
It is also the final resting place of the unofficial patron saint of Cork, Little Nellie of the Holy God, who died from TB of the spine in 1908. Originally from Waterford, Nellie Organ was described by Pope Pius X as a "little saint" for the way she bore the illness, which she developed at four years of age. An Taisce has called on the property developer who purchased the lands for a student apartment development to outline his plans for the burial grounds.
"There are very elaborate provisions that need to be put into place if anybody wants to develop or build anything over a burial ground. It can only be done if the legal procedure is put in place whereby the bodies are removed and reburied in different locations or cremated," Mr Ian Lumley of An Taisce said.