"If in the past we didn’t see things through the eyes of injured children and young people, today we undoubtedly have moved a long way in that direction.”

The only acceptable outcome in the matter of the Tuam mass grave is the immediate convening of an inquest into the deaths of all the children recorded as dying within it, for whom no burial record exists – Tuam Home Survivors Network.

Philomena’s search for her son Anthony, who was born in a mother and baby home in 1951, has touched millions of people in Ireland and around the world, both through the film and the book on which it was based.

“I can only begin to imagine the huge emotional wrench which the mothers suffered in giving up their babies for adoption or by witnessing their death,” says Archbishop of Tuam.

Former CEO of NBSCCCI, Ian Elliott, suggested as possible candidate to head up commission.