Southern Editor An oral hearing opens later this morning into a controversial planning application for 179 apartments in the grounds of a former mother-and-baby home at Bessborough in Cork. A campaign group, which is opposing the application, claims the development will encroach on a former children's burial ground there. The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes found that 923 babies born at or associated with Bessborough died there between 1922 and 1988. The burial place of most of them is unknown. Developer MWB Two Ltd has applied directly to An Bord Pleanála under the Strategic Housing Initiative for permission to build 179 apartments in three blocks on a 3.7-acre site in the grounds of Bessborough.