They gathered for the loneliest of burials in Newcastlewest, Co Limerick, yesterday, for a child no one knew, who was born in the most isolated of circumstances, writes Carl O'Brien in Newcastlewest, Co Limerick
The body of the baby boy was discovered in a skip in Killala, near the village of Broadford in Co Limerick, on August 4th by a 21-year-old Polish worker while the skip was being emptied.
Evidence suggests the baby boy, who had been a full-term birth, had not lived long after his delivery. Despite appeals from the Garda for the mother to come forward in confidence, there has been no response.
Yesterday, members of the Garda, the health services and the local community gathered on an overcast August morning for the baby boy's burial at the Calvary Cemetery. The burial, without a funeral, felt eerily empty in the absence of family mourners.
Sgt Martin Kelly carried the tiny white coffin in his gloved hands to the graveside, where it was dwarfed by the large floral tributes laid out on the grass.
One group of blue flowers read: "Sleep peacefully little angel in God's arms. And we'll pray for your mammy."
The baby, christened Aidan by local gardaí after the saint who died on the same day hundreds of years ago, was lowered carefully into the ground by three undertakers.
Without direct family or mourners, the group of about 30 people stood back from the graveside, some of whom wiped their eyes and sobbed quietly as the burial took place.
The plot, which normally costs around €500, had been paid for by the county council, while the local health services took care of the rest of the burial arrangements.
A local sculptor is due to donate a headstone with the simple inscription: Baby Aidan, 2005.
Two local community welfare officers, Seán Griffin and PJ Guinane, representatives of the Health Service Executive, said health services were available for the mother, who could still come forward in confidence.
Supt Tom Gavin of Newcastlewest Garda station also appealed for the mother to come forward.
"The woman will need professional care and medical attention, We are asking her to come forward, where she'll be treated with compassion and sensitivity."
Workers at White's skip hire, where the child was discovered, were represented yesterday by company owner Ita White.
"It's very, very sad . . . It's tough on the young man who found him too. It's just very, very sad." she said.
Many of the local people gathered at the cemetery yesterday spoke in hushed tones of the circumstance of the child's death.
"You just can't imagine that something like this would happen in this day and age," said Julia Walsh, with some emotion.
"I'd have hoped we'd have gone past that," added her neighbour, Michael Kinelly.
The burial had a particular resonance for Mary Barry, a mother of five in her 50s, who wiped her eyes as she rested her hands on her five-year-old grandson's shoulders.
"I had a stillborn baby 30 years ago, and this brings it all back to me. Anthony John. He would be 31 today. I was in hospital at the time of the burial, my husband had to go through it all on his own.
"What kills is there are people in this town, and what they'd do to have a child," says Myra O'Brien, a local resident.
"There is still a stigma, there's still something there, whether it's in the family or whatever. Who knows? No one knows. We're all just thinking, now, about the mother of this child and how she is now."
Lillian O'Mahony (40), a mother-of-three in a blue raincoat, clutched a bunch of flowers and looked out across the graveyard.
"People are just heartbroken for the mother," she said. "You'd love to put her in your arms and tell her that everything will be all right."
Ms O'Mahony, who works at the local Statoil station, paused, and then spoke more quietly.
"I know, I've been there before. I buried a four-week-old child with a heart defect. And this brings it all back."