Feature documentary, 2023, 103 mins
Limbo will tell the story of how a government inquiry was sparked into 14 Mother and Baby Homes run by Irish religious orders in Ireland after local historian, Catherine Corless, made public her shocking discovery that 796 babies died between 1925 and 1961 in the Tuam home alone. Her suspicion that many, if not all of them, were buried in an underground sewage plant on the site of the former home has already been vindicated. The film will follow the trail of this ground breaking story, and feature survivors’ accounts of their experiences and the ongoing revelations by the Commission of Investigation of the high child mortality rate and lack of burial records at several homes including Bessborough in Cork and Sean Ross Abbey in Tipperary.
It will cover the on-going campaign for the truth by survivors and relatives, some of whom want DNA testing of the remains in the hope of claiming their loved ones, while, in the absence of burial records, others long to know where their lost relatives were buried. Some even dare to dream they may have brothers and sisters still alive amid allegations that their siblings’ deaths were fabricated to facilitate the trafficking of children to America from 1951 onwards. The film will detail what happened and ask why?
Director – Margo Harkin
Producers – Martha O’Neill & Margo Harkin
A Besom Productions / Wildfire Films Co-Production