When an inquiry into the Tuam home was announced, the Irish prime minister (Taoiseach) Enda Kenny said babies of unmarried parents had been treated as "an inferior sub-species" for decades.
It is believed nearly 800 children died at what was once a mother and baby home run by nuns in Tuam, County Galway.
BBC News NI Dublin correspondent Shane Harrison visited the Bon Secours home in County Galway and spoke to one man who has written two books about his forced separation from his mother.