Mass burials - Gardaí have to be part of investigation

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s call for nothing short of a "full-bodied" judicial and independent investigation into every mother-and-baby home in Ireland effectively pre-empts the Government ‘scoping’ initiative to decide what kind of inquiry should be held into the mass burial of deceased babies.

The Archbishop has landed the troubled Fine Gael- Labour Coalition with something of a dilemma by suggesting the inquiry should also explore the trans-Atlantic mail-order adoption business run by nuns supplying babies from those homes, as well as disturbing allegations that medical experiments were carried out on children under their care.

Support for his proposal, aired in an RTÉ interview, will largely depend on the cost and duration of such a broad inquiry. Besides scrutinising the role of the Catholic Church in this scandal, he wants it to scrutinise attitudes of society, of politicians and civil servants, between 1920 and 1960 when the homes operated.