Calls for probe into forced adoptions

Groups representing natural mothers and adopted people have called for an investigation into the scale of forced and illegal adoptions in Ireland.

It comes following a national apology by Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister, to thousands of unmarried mothers who were forced by government policies to give up their children for adoption over several decades.

An apology was recommended last year by a senate committee that investigated the impacts of the policies pursued at the time.