A ‘Magdalen Girl’, name and date unknown.

Four congregations ran the Magdalene Laundries: The Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters across Ireland.

It’s believed 30,000 women were incarcerated between 1922 and 1996. They have claimed the State, most notably the gardaí, knew the nuns behind the laundries were holding these women involuntarily.

Today’s report is a response to a UN Committee Against Torture’s call for an investigation into the residents’ claims.

Records were available for eight of the ten laundries investigated. Two ran by the Sisters of Mercy (Galway and Dún Laoghaire) did not have records.

What the Taoiseach told the Dáil:

The report deals not with 30,000 women but with 10,012. He said the actual number of known admissions was 14,607, as some women entered the laundries more than once.

He said the State was involved in just 26% of cases whereby women were sent to the laundries.

The average age was 23, the median age was 20, the youngest girl was nine, the oldest woman was 89.

He said just over 10% of women sent to the laundries were sent there by their families, and 19% went there themselves.

There was no evidence of sexual abuse at the laundries.

He said “destitution and poverty” were among the reasons women ended up in the laundries.

He said the stigma of being a resident should have been removed and he was sorry it has not happened sooner.

More here.

Read the report here. 

Pic via Aine Phillips 

UPDATE: Magdalene Survivors Reject Taoiseach’s Apology (breakingnews.ie)