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7th March 2017
04:29pm GMT
TV3 will broadcast a harrowing documentary tonight which reveals the true scale of the Mother and Baby scandal, which saw tens of thousands of women placed into homes against their will and horrifically high rates of infant mortality.
The documentary was originally aired in 2014, but following the recent discovery of over 800 bodies of babies as young as 34 foetal weeks old Tuam last week, TV3 questions if there are further revelations to come.
With Tuam appearing to only be the tip of the iceberg, there is increasing evidence that numerous other sites around the country were used for mass unmarked graves of infants from Mother and Baby homes.
The documentary hears heartbreaking first hand accounts from women who were incarcerated in the homes, including one woman whose child died and was buried without her knowledge.
The programme also looks into what amounts to an illegal adoption industry, where healthy babies and infants were sold to couples abroad, particularly the US.
One particularly shocking part of the documentary is the fact that some babies were used in medical trials, including a vaccine trial in Bessborough House in Cork which has never been officially acknowledged.
Campaigners, historians, experts and commentators including; Historian, Catherine Corless; author of Banished Babies, Mike Milotte; Colm O’Gorman from Amnesty International, Susan Lohan from Adoption Rights Alliance and an expert on social history from UCD, Lindsey Earner Byrne, all feature in this onscreen showing of one of Ireland's darkest chapters in history.
A Secret Buried: The Mother and Baby Scandal airs tomorrow night, Wednesday, at 11pm on TV3 and 3player.
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