The Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes report has returned the spotlight to the darkest recesses of the unholy alliance between Church and State after independence, which treated the most vulnerable and downtrodden in society with contempt and abject cruelty.
In what was arguably a theocracy in all but name, the partnership ensured that an undemocratic Church, with a mandate only from God and the Pope, played a pivotal role in maintaining a strict moral code even if that trampled on basic human rights.
There was no room for the romantic ideals and lofty aspirations expressed by the socialists and poets who led the 1916 Rebellion.