'Unmarried mothers in Ireland faced a "brutally misogynistic culture" for decades, a minister has said after the publication of a report into the deaths of 9,000 children and babies.
A five-year investigation by a judicial commission of investigation details how the children died at 18 institutions for unmarried mothers and their babies between 1922 and 1998.
The commission's 3,000-page report confirms that 9,000 babies died - about 15% of all the children who were in the institutions - and a figure far higher than the national mortality rate at the time.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin will make an official state apology to those affected on Wednesday in the Dail.
He said the report describes "a dark, difficult and shameful chapter of very recent Irish history", and called on the Church to issue its own apology.'
Read more here: 9,000 children died at 'brutally misogynistic' homes for unmarried mothers in Ireland
A five-year investigation by a judicial commission of investigation details how the children died at 18 institutions for unmarried mothers and their babies between 1922 and 1998.
The commission's 3,000-page report confirms that 9,000 babies died - about 15% of all the children who were in the institutions - and a figure far higher than the national mortality rate at the time.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin will make an official state apology to those affected on Wednesday in the Dail.
He said the report describes "a dark, difficult and shameful chapter of very recent Irish history", and called on the Church to issue its own apology.'
Read more here: 9,000 children died at 'brutally misogynistic' homes for unmarried mothers in Ireland