The Irish government’s investigation into Ireland’s mother and baby homes focused on 18 homes that operated between 1922 (the establishment of the Irish Free State) and 1998 (by which time most mother and baby homes had closed). The government found that more than 9,000 children died in these homes. It also confirmed the presence of “significant quantities of human remains” on the grounds of the former St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, where in 2014 it was reported that infants and children from the home had been buried in a septic tank.