The HIA inquiry was able to examine, in full, every file and document concerning Kincora Boys' Home, Sir Anthony Hart says.

Image source, Pacemaker

He added that the inquiry had received the full co-operation of the PSNI but that was in "marked contrast to the unwillingness of some individuals."  

Sir Anthony Hart: HIA has "stripped away decades of half truths masquerading as facts, in relation to Kincora and what state agencies did or did not do about (the abuse there). 39 boys were abused at some point during their time at Kincora."

Image source, Pacemaker

The Catholic Archbishop of Ireland, Eamon Martin, says the publication of the report into Historical Institutional Abuse here "reminds us that much work remains to be undertaken in this regard."   

The Archbishop is due to meet Pope Francis today and is expected to make reference to the HIA findings in his speech. 

The HIA spoke to 18 former residents of Rathgael Training School in Bangor. It found that a small number of staff sexually abused girls there. 

The inquiry found that there was unregulated physical punishment and frequent unrecorded informal corporal punishment. It also found that there was a lack of training in the control and restraint of children who lived there.   

St. Patrick's Training School was run by the De La Salle religious order. The HIA found that there was systemic sexual abuse by some of the brothers working there.

It found that the institution used informal corporal punishment and that older boys were permitted to punish others when supervising them in the dormitory. There were also a number occasions of degradation by stripping boys naked to stand in full view of others.   

The inquiry has found systemic failures in Lisnevin Training School. It was found that there was a failure to refer allegations of assault by staff on a boy to the RUC.   

Victims of historical institutional abuse in Northern Ireland have been talking to BBC News NI about the impact it has had on their lives.

Margaret McGuckin, who's been the public face of the campaign for victims, spoke to BBC Newsline's Tara Mills about her brother Kevin's experience. The 62-year-old lives in care and has a learning difficulty that Margaret belives is directly related to what he suffered as a child.

Sir Anthony Hart has been outlining the social and economic background to institutional care in Northern Ireland. He said for "many years the financial circumstances and living conditions were very poor". 

"The extreme violence and civil disorder in the 1970s and 1980s did not leave those responsible for child care. These factors are largely forgotten today although there were many failures. Those failings must be examined against the backdrop of the political, social and economic circumstances at the time," he added. 

Most applicants to the HIA were seen in Belfast, but others were seen in Londonderry, in the Republic of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and some others in Australia. 

The inquiry also heard from people who worked in the institutions being investigated.

Sir Anthony Hart says: The largest number of complaints to the HIA related to four homes of the Sisters of Nazareth religious order. In each of the four homes some nuns engaged in physical and emotional abuse against children. Emotional abuse was widespread in all homes."

Sir Anthony Hart also found that a disinfectant was used used in baths. He said there was a significant number of cases of sexual abuse involving both priests and lay staff. Many of these incidents were known to members of the clergy who did nothing to stop them.

The Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry exposed deep wounds in the hearts and lives of hundreds of people who went through the childcare system in Northern Ireland in the last century, Kevin Sharkey outlines the background to today's events.  

Sir Anthony Hart said: "Our terms of reference, unlike other current inquiries, were not limited to sexual abuse, we examined allegations of physical and emotional abuse and other failings to provide proper terms of care."

Sir Anthony Harte is currently outing the background to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA). 

493 people "engaged with the inquiry in one form or another" making allegations about 65 institutions.   

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry was chaired by retired High Court judge Sir Anthony Hart. He was appointed in May 2012.

Sir Anthony Hart was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1969 and to the Bar of England and Wales in 1975.  

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) is examining allegations of child abuse in children's homes and other residential institutions in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995.  

It's the biggest child abuse public inquiry ever held in the UK, having been contacted by more than 400 people who said they were abused in childhood.  

The chair of the Historical Abuse Inquiry, Sir Anthony Hart, has now begun to address the public and media assembled in a Belfast hotel.