IRELAND
Irish Examiner
A statutory inquiry is to be set up by the Government into state sanctioned, religious-run institutions used to house pregnant mothers.
The special commission of investigation will examine the high mortality rates at mother and baby homes across several decades of the 20th century, the burial practices at these sites and also secret and illegal adoptions and vaccine trials on children.
It is thought about 35,000 unmarried mothers spent time in one of 10 homes run by religious orders in Ireland.
The inquiry has been ordered after massive national and international focus on the story of one home, run by the Sisters of the Bon Secours in Tuam, Co Galway, where the remains of 796 infants are believed to be buried. Some lie in the remnants of what was once a concrete septic tank on the grounds of the home.
Children’s Minister Charlie Flanagan said it was time to shed light on another dark period in Irish history.
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