Hundreds of babies rejected by the Catholic Church and buried in secret in unmarked graves are to be commemorated with a special monument.
It will be unveiled next Sunday in Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, on a road leading to a field where the bodies are buried on the Classiebawn estate - once the holiday home of Lord Mountbatten.
Local historian Joe McGowan said there are hundreds of similar sites around the country.
He said: "When people couldn't bury their infants in sanctified ground they looked around and said what's the closest thing. Back in early Christian Ireland in this area this site existed.
" It was known as Cill na mBochtáin - the Church of the Poor. Parents of unbaptised babies buried them there because they figured it was the closest thing to sanctified ground."
He added: "It's not unique to Mullaghmore. Similar sites are all over the country. It was church law at the time. Local clergy had no say. Fortunately, after Vatican II we don't hear of that sort of thing any more."
He said in some areas unbaptised children were buried in fairy forts or giants' graves because they were regarded as pagan places and the babies were considered to be pagans.
"There are very few descriptions of burials because it was done in shame," Mr McGowan said. "People got a spade and shoe box and went sometimes in the dead of night. There was a stigma attached to it."