The controversy over the future of the site of the former mother and baby home in Bessborough is a reminder of the cosy collusion between Church and State that characterised the dark underbelly of Irish life since independence.

The anger of survivors at plans to build on this site in Blackrock bears its own sad testimony to what has been called the “republic of shame”. History can’t be erased, but the hurt caused in the past ought not to be needlessly perpetuated.

The story of Church-State relations in this country is a multi-layered one, laced with controversy. And while that story was well told up until the end of the 1970s, the “dark underbelly” - of which the Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes and industrial schools (such as Greenmount in Cork and Artane in Dublin) were prime examples - didn’t feature prominently.

That didn’t really change until another scandalous episode - the shocking revelations of the sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy - forced its way into the public domain and resulted in the hugely-damaging Murphy, Ryan, Ferns, and Cloyne Reports.

Prior to that, Catholic Ireland was stunned when the Irish Times, in a front-page story in May, 1992, broke the news that the Bishop of Galway, Eamonn Casey, had fathered a child in secret with an American woman named Annie Murphy.

Journalist Mary Kenny, in........

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