The locations include 15 state-run children's homes, 13 institutions run by Catholic Church orders and four borstals or training schools.

BBC: Sir Anthony Hart

The inquiry, which will be headed by retired High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart, will examine allegations of abuse at children's homes, care institutions and borstals between 1945 and 1995.

BBC: Inquiry into Historical Institutional Abuse Bill cont'd.

To date the inquiry has identified more than 170 facilities that operated during the time period, including children's homes, orphanages, industrial schools, workhouses, borstals, hospital units and schools for children with disabilities.

BBC: Sir Anthony Hart

As a hostel newbie - the ones on offer when I was young being more akin to borstals than anything else - I was astonished to discover they now have free wifi, a bar, barbecues, beer nights, and rooms more akin to boutique hotels than the dirty, ram-a-jam hell-holes of my youth.

BBC: Is interrailing still a rite of passage?