Ireland publishes report on 'appalling' abuse at mother and baby homes

We embraced judgmental, moral certainty and perverse religious morality,' says taoiseach

Ireland has ripped back the veil on a dark historical chapter that condemned tens of thousands of unmarried mothers and their babies to callousness and cruelty in institutions run by both the state and the Catholic church.

A judicial commission of investigation published a long-awaited 2,865-page report into a network of mother and baby homes" that inflicted abuse and shame - with the complicity of wider society - for much of the 20th century.