The findings of a nine-year inquiry into abuse suffered by children in Catholic institutions in Ireland over a 60-year period are due to be published.
About 35,000 children were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses up to the 1980s.
More than 2,000 told the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse they suffered physical and sexual abuse while there.
he commission was established in 2000 after the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern issued an apology on behalf of the state to the victims of child abuse.
A government compensation scheme was also established. It has already paid out almost one billion euros in compensation and legal fees to 12,500 people.
Led by Mr Justice Sean Ryan, the commission's report is believed to be five volumes and 2,500 pages long.
Thousands of abused men and women testified to the commission, which was set up after a television series revealed the scale of the abuse.
Journalist Mary Raftery, who was behind the series, said the extent and depravity of the abuse was "profoundly shocking".
"It is off the scale in terms of anything we have any knowledge of or any ability to deal with, particularly, as it was perpetrated, in the main, by members of religious orders," she said.
"It is an absolutely shameful episode in our history."
Another major report is due next month on abuse by Catholic priests working in parish churches around Dublin.
The Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Reverend Diarmuid Martin, warned last month that it would "shock us all."
About 35,000 children were placed in a network of reformatories, industrial schools and workhouses up to the 1980s.
More than 2,000 told the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse they suffered physical and sexual abuse while there.
he commission was established in 2000 after the then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern issued an apology on behalf of the state to the victims of child abuse.
A government compensation scheme was also established. It has already paid out almost one billion euros in compensation and legal fees to 12,500 people.
Led by Mr Justice Sean Ryan, the commission's report is believed to be five volumes and 2,500 pages long.
Thousands of abused men and women testified to the commission, which was set up after a television series revealed the scale of the abuse.
Journalist Mary Raftery, who was behind the series, said the extent and depravity of the abuse was "profoundly shocking".
"It is off the scale in terms of anything we have any knowledge of or any ability to deal with, particularly, as it was perpetrated, in the main, by members of religious orders," she said.
"It is an absolutely shameful episode in our history."
Another major report is due next month on abuse by Catholic priests working in parish churches around Dublin.
The Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Reverend Diarmuid Martin, warned last month that it would "shock us all."




Comment