Irish inquiry finds "appalling level of infant mortality" at church-run homes

An Irish inquiry into homes for unwed mothers that the Catholic Church ran from 1922 to 1998 found an "appalling level of infant mortality" with some 9,000 children dying in the so-called Mother and Baby Homes.

That represents about 15% of all who entered the institutions, with no single explanation for such a high rate of mortality, the government-commissioned report published on Tuesday said.

It also found that there were no statutory regulations in place for the foreign adoptions of 1,638 children - mostly to the United States. Allegations that large sums of money were given to agencies in Ireland that arranged foreign adoptions are impossible to prove and impossible to disprove, it added.

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