The Castle in Newtowncunningham in Co Donegal was "not a traditional mother-and-baby home," the Commission for Investigation found, having opened in 1982 and closed in 2006.
It was described as a supported hostel for women and their children, "which aimed to give time to the women to make decisions about their futures and that of their babies," and after 1997 was used as a children's home as well as a place for children in foster care to have access visits from their mothers.
The North-Western Health Board's senior social worker told the commission that the objective of The Castle was "to provide a space for women with unplanned pregnancies who did not want to stay at home and who needed to think about the future".
Between 1982 and 1998 a total of 325 women entered The Castle, seven of whom were not pregnant, with the vast majority referred by a health board or the church-run CURA agency, while some were referred by adoption societies and voluntary agencies.
The hostel was run by a management committee which included representatives from the North-Western Health Board as well as the dioceses of Raphoe and Derry.
"The women who were in The Castle were quite a diverse group," the commission found, from many parts of Ireland and some from Northern Ireland.
At least one third-level student had finished her college course in Derry while living at the home while some of the younger residents went to school from there.
Some of the women were "meek," some were "bewildered by their situation and probably frightened" while others were feisty, outspoken and well able to stand up for themselves.
"Not surprisingly, there is considerable evidence of emotional upset, sometimes following a meeting or phone call with family members, and particularly when leaving the children with foster parents or in the orphanage and when wresting with the decision on adoption."
Pregnant women who already had children were allowed to bring these children to The Castle, and some of those children went to school every day, in taxis paid by the health board.
Five babies died during the 1984 to 1998 period, all deaths happening in hospital soon after birth. "The diaries record that the staff were upset by the deaths and they helped with funeral arrangements if the mothers were not getting family assistance."
Some newly born infants went straight from the hospital where they were born to foster parents, or town orphanage, while others went back to The Castle to stay with their mothers.
Visits by the mothers to their children in foster care, and vice versa, were encouraged by The Castle.
According to the commission, staff working in The Castle were local women who "showed a great deal of empathy and, possibly more importantly, common sense".
The majority of the women's families were aware of where they were living and there were some examples of women visiting with their parents in advance.
Some of the women did return to their family homes with their babies, other families were "conscious of keeping secrecy" and some were "completely shunned" by their families.
The women got "a great deal of help" from the staff, who were "very sympathetic" towards them and probably did more for them than was envisaged when the hostel was established, acting as advocates for them and helping them with finding accommodation.
Decisions to put a baby up for adoption were agonising for the women, with their families' attitudes as well as the availability of accommodation key factors. "One woman wanted to keep her child but knew she could not cope with two children. The child's father would beat her up if she proposed adoption. She could not live with him because he was mentally unstable.
The records showed that between 1987 and 1990 the women were expected to pay £24 per week for their stay, £5 a week for a baby and £7 a week for an older child, although there was evidence of lesser amounts being paid and sometimes payments being made but the organisations that referred them.
According to the report, some former residents and their children kept in touch with staff members afterwards, often calling them for advice, and the House Mother said in 2016 that she still received Christmas cards from former residents.
