Mother and Baby Homes report finds ‘rampant’ infant mortality, ‘appalling’ conditions for thousands
Taoiseach condemns ‘dark, difficult and shameful chapter of recent Irish history’
The huge report, which runs to some 3,000 pages, is a scathing indictment of the institutions it examined. Taoiseach Micheál Martin says its findings have revealed a "dark, difficult and shameful chapter of very recent Irish history". Video: Pool/PA
A grim picture of a cold and callous Ireland that damaged the lives of tens of thousands people by consigning them to institutions emerges from the report of the Commission on Mother and Baby Homes.
It found that mothers and babies suffered material and emotional deprivation in the institutions, where infant mortality was sometimes rampant and women felt they had no choice but to give up their children for adoption.