With the publication this week of the fifth interim report of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation, the disturbing spectre of the dead who were confined in those institutions of shame and segregation continues to haunt us.

The Mother and Baby Homes Commission has said it is “very difficult to comprehend” how the Order which ran Bessborough has no information as to where over 800 children who died in their care are buried.

The investigation into the mother and baby homes was expected to be a journey into history and past practices long since laid to rest.

The Taoiseach says society needs to atone for the treatment of mothers and babies kept in institutions.

The bodies of some of the children who died in Mother and Baby Homes were used for anatomical studies.

Four years after the establishment of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission, the focus of its investigation has clearly moved away from Tuam and onto other headline-generating institutions like Bessborough and Sean Ross Abbey, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

Members of the Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes have expressed their disappointment at the Government's refusal to publish its full report.

Members of the Collaborative Forum on Mother and Baby Homes have expressed their disappointment at the Government's refusal to publish its full report.

The Government’s planned legislation to allow people separated from their families through adoption to have access to their own records and histories has been slammed as “unfit for purpose” by a civil liberties group.

Survivors of Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes in the North are being encouraged to come forward and share their experience with a working group investigating the institutions.

The one-year delay in the final report of the Mother and Baby Homes Inquiry has received a mixed welcome from survivors.

Both religious orders and the State are failing to make any serious attempt to centralise, digitise and open up access to records of institutions, writes Conall Ó Fátharta. 

The McAleese inquiry into Magdalene laundries was informed in 2012 about “disturbing” infant death rates in excess of 50% at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

The language and scope of the Mother and Baby Home Commission is questionable, says Conall Ó Fátharta

The Government has acceded to a request from the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes for more time to complete its reports on foot of an unexpectedly large number of witnesses seeking to give testimony.

People who lived or worked in 27 County Homes will not be able to give evidence to the Mother and Baby Homes Commission.

Justice for Magdalenes Research and Adoption Rights Alliance have launched a pro-bono legal initiative to assist witnesses drafting statements to the state commission of inquiry.

Church of Ireland Bishop Paul Colton was so moved by the experience of a survivor of the Westbank orphanage that he has called for all Protestant homes to be included in the Mother and Baby Home investigation.

Over 1,000 adopted people are languishing on waiting lists, seeking a service to help them discover their natural relatives.

A three-year investigation into Mother and Baby Homes will be conducted following the revelations last year about the deaths of almost 800 children at the Tuam home, the Government confirmed today.

The Department of Health has said it has "no information" on where, or in what institution, a previously undisclosed fifth vaccine trial on children here in the 1960s took place.

May I take this opportunity of drawing to the Taoiseach’s attention, that given the recent deluge of information which is emerging with reference to the Mother and Baby Home at Tuam, Co. Galway, it is becoming imperative that the Government finally takes action to face up to this shocking episode in the history of the State.