Ireland will finally investigate the evils perpetrated by its notorious ‘mother and baby homes’

Ireland is about to turn the spotlight onto some “dark periods” of its history and, based on what’s been reported so far, it’s going to be shocking.

A wide-ranging investigation announced by the Irish government this week is expected to examine allegations of child abuse, burial practices, illegal adoptions and experimental vaccine trials at so-called “mother and baby homes,” which operated in the predominantly Catholic country for most of the last century.

The inquiry is also expected to look at the high mortality rate of children at these church and state-run institutions, which accommodated women who became pregnant outside of marriage and were ostracized by their families in the ultra-conservative society.

The probe was triggered by the gruesome discovery of a mass grave containing the skeletal remains of nearly 800 babies near a former home run by Catholic nuns for unwed mothers — dubbed “fallen women” — and their children.

It's feared there could be more mass graves around the country.

Minister for Children Charlie Flanagan said it was time “that a light be shone on these dark periods.”

“Now is an opportunity that has not been grasped by government before to deal with this matter in a comprehensive way,” Flanagan said.

While the terms of the inquiry have yet to be set, here are some of the cases expected to be examined:

Bodies of 800 babies found in mass grave in Tuam, Galway

This picture taken on June 9, 2014, shows a shrine in Tuam, County Galway erected in memory of nearly 800 infants who were buried in a septic tank behind a former home run by Catholic nuns for unmarried mothers. (AFP/Getty Images)

The recent discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of nearly 800 babies near a former home for unwed mothers and their children sent shockwaves through Ireland, and much of the world.

The infant remains were found in a concrete septic tank at the back of the St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home, which was run by the Catholic nuns in Tuam, Galway for 36 years before it was closed in 1961.

Local historian Catherine Corless made the highly disturbing discovery after studying the death records for the home.

“There was just one child who was buried in a family plot in the graveyard in Tuam. That's how I am certain there are 796 children in the mass grave,” she told the Irish Daily Mail.

"These girls were run out of their family home and never taken back, so why would they take the babies back to bury them, either?"

Many of the children died from malnutrition and neglect, or from complications associated with measles, pneumonia, TB, gastroenteritis, and other diseases.

“It is not an exaggeration to say the treatment of the women and their babies was an abomination," Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny told parliament this week.

"If this issue isn't handled properly, then Ireland's soul in many ways will lie like the babies of so many of these mothers in an unmarked grave."

It's feared there could be more mass graves at other homes.

Experimental vaccine trials involving children

The exterior of the St. Mary's Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Galway. (Catherine Corless/Facebook)

Hundreds of children at mother and baby homes were subjected to experimental vaccine trials in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Daily Telegraph said 298 children at 10 institutions around Ireland participated in the trials run by pharmaceutical company Burroughs Welcome, which was later taken over by GlaxoSmithKline.

In one trial, 80 children became sick after they were given a vaccine made for cattle.

A former social worker at Bessborough House, which was one of the homes involved in the drug tests, said parental consent was needed before the children could be given the vaccine.

“The doctor would come here and say could they carry out this experiment, and the mother would bring the child into the doctor’s. You couldn’t do it without the mother’s permission,” Sister Sarto told NewsTalk radio.

But the trials had been going on for much longer than that.

The Daily Mail, citing old medical records, said more than 2,000 children in church-run homes were subjected to vaccine trials back in the 1930s.

It’s not just Catholic Church-run institutions in the spotlight

The Protestant-run Bethany home for mothers and babies in Dublin. (Bethany Survivors Group Ireland/Facebook)

The Protestant-run Bethany Home in Dublin is also expected to be included in the investigation.

More than 200 babies died at the now infamous mother and baby home between 1922 and 1949.

Their unmarked graves were discovered in 2010, nearly 40 years after the home closed.

“I am conscious of grievance on the part of people who were directly associated with Bethany Home and I am anxious that the scope of the inquiry would be beyond Tuam and County Galway. I would include all mother and baby homes with specific reference to the Bethany,” Flanagan said.

Meanwhile in Northern Ireland …

A session of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry in Banbridge, Northern Ireland on Jan. 13, 2014.

Across the border there is already an inquiry under way into allegations of child abuse in Catholic Church and state-run homes from 1922 to 1995.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, set up in 2012, is the biggest public inquiry into allegations of child abuse ever held in the UK.

Investigators are charged with finding out if there were "systemic failings by institutions or the state in their duties towards those children in their care.” 

The inquiry is now taking evidence from former residents. 

Investigators are also travelling to Australia to speak to potential witnesses about a UK government-backed child migrant scheme that sent more than 100 children from Northern Ireland to Australian institutions in the 1940s and 1950s.