HARD-WON abortion rights have been rolled back in Poland and Texas as conservative governments take power across the globe and women in Afghanistan are facing the real prospect of being denied education, a voice in public life or the right to work.

A brutal civil war gave birth to the Irish free state in 1922. The practice of incarcerating pregnant women and girls, subjecting them to hard labour and horrific living conditions was the result of the Catholic Church holding huge power within the newly formed state. Even though the skeletal remains of babies were discovered in Tuam, Co Galway in 1975, it took decades for the full horror of what occurred within the walls of the Irish mother and baby homes to be exposed.

The catastrophic consequences of the alliance between the Irish free state and the Catholic Church would be borne by Irish women and their children. The women who were were sent into the mother and baby homes had little education, few options available to them and many of them were forced to give up their babies once they were born. The wall of silence and secrecy that was constructed by the authorities and allowed to continue without challenge  led to these women and children suffering significant abuse and many died.