On the threshold of the year to come, some well-known people tell Donal O’Keeffe their new year’s resolutions.

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone has said that the Bon Secours order has an “ethical responsibility” to provide more funding for the exhumation and reburial of the remains of babies at the Tuam Mother and Baby home.

Dr Geoffrey Shannon advised the Government that DNA samples can be speedily taken by way of a voluntary administrative scheme and without the need for new legislation.

So that’s nearly Thursday wrapped up. Here’s some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

Historian Catherine Corless, who exposed the Tuam Babies scandal, tells Donal O’Keeffe why she feels Tuam and Bessborough need to be excavated, and highlights Pope Francis’ apparent confusion about Tuam.

Catherine Corless, the historian who exposed the Tuam Babies scandal, has called on the Government to release the names of more than 900 children who died in Cork’s Bessborough Mother and Baby home.

A new exhibition in UCC has artists responding to the Tuam Babies scandal and the situation at Bessborough, writes Donal O’Keeffe

THE burial locations of thousands of babies born in mother and baby homes remain unknown after investigators hit unexplained gaps in official records and claims by religious orders that they did not know what went on.

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.

There is a strong feminist sensibility in Laurence McKeown’s debut collection of poems, written during (and after) his incarceration in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh where he almost died, having been on hunger strike for 70 days.

Gerard Craughwell thinks it would be a good way to recognise unsung heroes across the country doing important work.

NUI Galway has hosted a public event with members from the Tuam Home Survivors Network and featuring a range of speakers, including historian Catherine Corless, Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley of the Department of History, NUI Galway, and Irish Examiner reporter Conall Ó Fátharta.

The remains of hundreds of infants buried in a mass grave in Tuam will be exhumed as part of a “full forensic examination” of the site of the former mother and baby home.

“In honouring these exceptional individuals, we signal what we value in areas that matter to us and to our society - local history, disability rights, music and environmental sustainability.”

The Tuam Home Survivors Network has savaged the appeal to the Pope by Children's Minister Katherine Zappone for funds for the Mother and Baby Home site, calling it "nothing more than a publicity stunt".

A recommendation on the future of children’s remains at the site of the former mother and baby home in Tuam is expected to be announced in early autumn, a meeting in the Co Galway town was told last night.

Mary Morrissy Considering ‘memorialisation’ on equal terms with investigation will quite literally pave over the wrongdoing, writes Mary Morrissy.

The focus on one institution — Tuam — and one issue — baby deaths — has proved to be convenient for the Government but the spotlight needs to shift to the glaring elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. The issue will simply not go away, writes Conall Ó Fátharta.

Catherine Corless forced an official inquiry, but it seems that the HSE had already been aware of some of the disturbing allegations about Bessborough and Tuam for some time, writes Conall Ó Fatharta.

Historian Catherine Corless, the Irish Coast Guard, crew of Rescue 116, rugby referee Joy Neville and campaigner Vera Twomey were among those honoured at tonight’s Rehab People of the Year Awards.

Children’s minister Katherine Zappone is requesting a copy of research which states that new advanced genomic technologies should allow for the identification of remains at the site of the former Tuam Mother and Baby Home.

A child therapist turned fine arts student has created a collection of tiny porcelain hearts as a tribute to the babies of Tuam.

DNA from a 30-year-old postage stamp enabled a woman known as the “Blackberry Bush Baby” to identify her biological father.

The Government has been urged to direct that a full forensic excavation, exhumation, and DNA testing of the remains at the Tuam site be commenced immediately.

Catch up on the headlines this lunchtime...

Your morning bulletin...

Tuam babies campaigner Catherine Corless has hit out at the Government for focusing “on cost” rather than committing to a full forensic excavation, exhumation, and DNA testing of the remains at the Tuam site.

A public appeal for information has been made relating to the burials of a “large number” of children who died in the Bessborough mother and baby home.

Two members of the Irish Examiner political staff have secured a top journalism award for their analysis of the treatment of a young woman who suffered a litany of abuse in a foster home.

It would be foolish to imagine that, even after two decades of painful unearthing that we are aware of the all of the horrors inflicted on vulnerable children entrusted to religious organisations.

The volunteer historian who uncovered details of a mass grave at the former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam has been honoured as a "fearless campaigner for human rights".

Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone has said she is in favour of all mother and baby home sites being exhumed after giving the green light for the Tuam facility to be excavated.

I am determined that any action must respect the memory and dignity of the deceased children who lived their short lives in this home, writes Katherine Zappone.

Viewers at home took to Twitter to praise the historian and deeming her an Irish heroine.

The President hopes the commission into mother and baby homes will “put the truth on the record”.

Infants were taken from their mothers and sold, starved, trafficked, and in some cases denied life itself, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said in relation to the Tuam buried babies scandal.