The stories from Bessborough are devastating.

One: “I was screaming with the pain, three days screaming with the pain and all you got was, ‘Oh you should have thought about this nine months ago.’ ‘You have got to suffer for your sins and you have got to put up with it.’ And the more you screamed the more she abused you.”

Another: The midwife “wouldn't give any painkilling. She was cutting the girls down below and just would tell them this is your punishment for what you have done and you are never doing this again.”

Another: “When my baby boy was six-seven weeks old, he was wrenched from my breast by one of the nuns whilst I was feeding him and taken away for adoption… I ran after the nun down the corridor, but there were two big doors that women weren’t allowed to go through… [1/2]

“…and so all I could do was bang on those doors.

“About an hour later the nun came back and told me that my baby was gone… At no time did I give my consent to my son’s adoption.”

Taoiseach singles out the finding that mother and baby homes had significantly higher mortality rates than broader society

He also singles out Catherine Corless for the work she did on researching the burial records of Tuam which prompted this State inquiry

Taoiseach says he will issue the State apology in Dáil Éireann tomorrow

Roderic O'Gorman says the report reflects a society which was "stifling, oppressive and deeply misogynistic"

O'Gorman: Every person who spoke out led us to the truth that we see today… this is an extraordinary moment for those for whom this is not history, but everyday living pain

O'Gorman: Legislation allowing dignified excavation of Tuam, and testing on remains, will be passed this year