Known as "mother and baby homes," the controversial institutions were widespread in Ireland from the 1920s to the 1990s. They housed mostly young women who were cast out by their families for bearing children deemed illegitimate in a largely conservative religious society.

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A special commission of investigation will examine the high mortality rates, burial practices and secret and illegal adoption and vaccine trials on children at these homes.

Irish minister for children Charles Flanagan said it is essential all the facts are established.

The Irish government's move came one day after Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin called for a full- bodied investigation into mother-and-baby homes.

There had been an outcry after publicity about the deaths of nearly 800 children at one home in Tuam from 1925 to 1961.

Some of their remains are believed to be in a disused septic tank.

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His call follows controversy over a mass grave containing the remains of nearly 800 children from a convent-run home in Tuam in County Galway.

The children, aged one to nine, died between 1925 and 1961.

The remains, in a disused septic tank, were discovered 40 years ago.

It was initially thought the children's deaths were in the 1850s.

Archbishop Martin said the truth must come out about the homes.

If something happened in Tuam, it probably happened in other such homes around Ireland, Archbishop Martin told RTÉ radio.

"That's why I believe we need a full-bodied investigation," he said.

"There's no point investigating just what happened in Tuam and then next year finding out more.

"We have to look at the whole culture of mother and baby homes; they're talking about medical experiments there."

There have been reports that vaccinations were trialled on children in some of these homes.

Archbishop Martin also said that he wasn't sure if the full blame for the issues at these homes could be placed on the Church.

"There was collusion between church and state institutions," he said.

The Irish government has set up an inter-departmental group to look at the case.

"They're very complicated and very sensitive issues, but the only way we will come out of this particular period of our history is when the truth comes out," Archbishop Martin said.

The Tuam home was run by the Bon Secours sisters for 36 years.

In a statement, the order said it handed its records to the state after the home closed.

The Tuam home was one of 10 institutions in which about 35,000 unmarried pregnant women are thought to have been sent.

The children of these women were denied Baptism and segregated from others at school.

If they died at such facilities, they were also denied a Christian burial.

County Galway death records showed that most of the children buried in the unmarked grave had died of sickness or malnutrition.

Sources

• BBC
• The Journal
• Image: Irish Independent