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.

Children’s minister James Reilly has said he is “confident” the planned mother and baby home inquiry will have the support of “those most centrally involved”.

At the age that most children start primary school, Andrew Begley was sent to work on a farm in the North.

Protestant children who were sent to the Westbank orphanage in Greystones, Co Wicklow, were not told that other residents were their brothers or sisters, mainly lived on baby food and were beaten with clothes hangers and electrical cables.