Magdalene Laundries Report Published Today

The interdepartmental committee report on the State’s involvement with the Magdalene laundries will be presented to women who were in the laundries, their advocacy groups and the Government in Dublin today.

The committee was set up in July 2011 “to establish the facts of State involvement with the Magdalene laundries, to clarify any State interaction, and to produce a narrative detailing such interaction”.

The report was written under the chairmanship of Senator Martin McAleese.

Steven O’Riordan of the Magdalene Survivors Together group said last night he would be “flabbergasted” if the report found there was no State involvement with the laundries, The Irish Times reports this morning.

He also said he hoped that it would show the full extent of that involvement, lay the basis for an apology “without delay” by the Taoiseach on behalf of the State to the women involved and lead to a scheme where the women will be paid for their work done in the laundries.

This would include securing pensions for the women too.  

The Irish Independent reports today that Senator McAleese will reveal that "key files" on the Magdalene laundries have gone missing.

The first Magdalene laundry in Ireland opened on Dublin’s Leeson Street in 1767. Four female religious congregations came to dominate the running of the laundries.

There were 10 Magdalene laundries in the Republic following independence.

These were at Waterford, New Ross, two in Cork, Limerick, Galway, and four in Dublin at Dún Laoghaire, Donnybrook, Drumcondra and Gloucester/ Seán MacDermott Street.

The Gloucester/ Seán MacDermott laundry did not close until October 1996.