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.

Historian Catherine Corless, who spent four years researching the running of the Bon Secours home and concluded that 796 children had died there over almost four decades, said the Commission’s finding vindicated her work.

Congregation rejects claims that they were paid any money for any adoption.